“Dear Fellow Democrat”
I’m sending you this time-sensitive survey because our Party cannot defeat John McCain and claim victories up and down the ballot unless all Democrats who care about America’s future make their voices heard.
That’s the second paragraph from my latest missive from Howard Dean. I doubt Howard wrote it, even though it’s his faux signature on the bottom. It’s probably a clever plot by Mike Gravel to steal the nomination, or something.
Howard, the thing is, you have already made it extremely plain that you don’t want to hear from any of the four million or so Democrats from the state of Florida. You told us that we don’t count and won’t be counted. You dislike Democrats in Florida so much, that, instead of reducing our representation at the convention by half, as stated in the rules of the Party, you eliminated all representation. You told us to shut up, and we will. We will also shut our wallets.
By the way, Howard, I’m no longer a Democrat. Thanks to you and your DNC, I took the hint and left. Update your list.
15 comments
Your a hard man Bryan but it is obviously the only thing that has a chance of making an impression. I have been throwing envelops from the Dems in the recycling, unopened for months.
Fallenmonk, I didn’t vote for, or in any way select any of the people who passed the change in date, and yet, I was personally disenfranchised. I have had to put up with years of crap locally for being a registered Democrat and that was the thanks I received. There are only a few statewide races where my vote actually has meaning: the governor and three cabinet officers, the two Senators, and the President. In every other race I have the reality of a 4 to 1 Republican majority in this county.
I didn’t put up with all that crap for all these years to be told by what was my party, that my vote doesn’t count. I’m stuck with a constitutional amendment that will cripple school districts and local governments, because of what the DNC did. You are damn straight I’m hard, and I won’t be back as long as any of the people involved have a place in the Democratic Party.
I guess this headline was misleading: Dean says Florida delegates will be seated at convention
Absolutely, all Howard is saying is that the delegation will be in the hall, but nothing about having a vote in the process. If they don’t vote, why waste the money going.
He keeps saying it is something for Clinton/Obama to decide and it damn sure isn’t. Some of us voted for other people in Florida and Edwards won delegates.
The DNC should have cut the delegations of every state that violated the rules in half, as is stated in the rules, but that’s not what happened.
Screw it, I’m leaving the line blank. If they wanted to win in November, they would have dealt with this in a fair and reasonable fashion in accordance with their own rules, but they didn’t.
yes, it’s misleading. seated before or after the first vote?
there’s not a lot of doubt that they’ll be seated, and eligible to be counted in all susequent votes, but it’s that first one that we’re fighting over. that’s the one where the pledged delegates are supposed to vote in line with the primary and caucus results that sent them to the convention.
Man, Bryan, I hear you. I am ready to get out, too. Or I should say, BACK out. These are not Democrats….. This is not the party I have known for decades. This is just…..undignified. And we thought Terry McAwfiul was bad….
I SO wish that Edwards had stayed in the race. Because all I can see now is President McBush. Ain’t no change in that.
p.s. I can’t get into your website half the time!! I will click on a feed, and nothing happens. Then if I just try to bring it up, nothing happens!!! Server issues?
I watched listened to Donna Brazil on CNN last night and she said the rules committee (whose court the ball is in) will make a decision by the end of the month. She soounded pretty confident that Florida and possibly Michigan will be seated…and I’m pretty confident that barring another round of Nixonian dirty tricks, Obama will still be the nominee regardless.
Moi, you may have to retry a couple of times because the system times out looking for the site. It is a problem with my domain name, not the site, and no one will acknowledge the responsibility. This started a couple of months ago.
Frederick, Donna Brazile is the single individual most responsible for the mess, the individual who pushed hardest for the elimination of all delegates from Florida and Michigan, and giving a pass to the other states that violated the rules. She is a one person wrecking crew who is almost never right about anything. She was part of the committee that made the decision, and the most vocal in implementing it. Allowing her anywhere near an election is a mistake of the first order.
To re-state: I’m out of this election. I’m not voting for any of these Republicans. This primary will be resolved by superdelegates as there is no candidate acceptable to a majority of the party. Maybe next time the Democrats will select a candidate in closed primaries, where the only people voting are Democrats, but they didn’t do it this time, and the price will be paid in November.
Bryan:
I understand that you are upset. I also understand that it was the GOP-controlled legislature that moved the primary up.
What’s the solution?
Can a new primary be held? By mail? Any other way?
I think after last night, it’s moot, as revotes in Fla. and Mich. won’t allow Clinton to overtake Obama anyway.
I urge you, however, to go out and vote in November.
That’s all I’ll say.
Welcome, Tafka, but nothing can undo the damage to the schools and local governments that resulted from the action of the DNC. Read this post to understand what really happened.
I have voted in every election held in every place I’ve lived since 1964, and I’ll vote this November, but I won’t vote for President. I have no other way of showing the DNC how badly they screwed up, and I’m not helping an organization that screwed me over.
I was one of the first people to join MoveOn, and they have lost me because of their partisan activities. I’ve been dropping people off my blogroll because they refuse to face reality and do their research.
I would note that I was “upset” when the B-52 mission used the wrong grid coordinates and began carpet bombing in my area. I’m much angrier than that.
I live in New York State. I could foreseeably go the rest of my life and never have to show up at the polls. It’s that reliably Democratic. I almost wish it were different. I envy you and the other blogger’s I know (like Navyswan) who live in a red state and have a chance to make a difference. I know the Republican legislature screwed you guys by moving the date up. I just know there is some way to get around this.
Wait and see how many Florida delegates are seated.
P.S. Closing the primaries to other parties would be the worst thing ever. I wish we had that system here in NY.
Second point first: what’s the point of having a political party, if you don’t have to be a member to choose its candidates? How do you establish a base and coordinate policies if there is no membership? Do you do everything by poll? Closed primaries require people to make a commitment, that open primaries don’t. I could make a bigger impact on my local races by registering as a Republican, because a lot of races are decided in the Republican primary, but I made the commitment. It’s not a lot to ask.
The damage is already done, Frederick. People are already losing jobs in local government. After the budget the Republicans just passed, more will lose their jobs and some governments and school districts will end up in bankruptcy. The state is coming apart, thanks, in part, to the decision of the DNC. I don’t care what they do now, they can’t undo what has happened.
They might convince some people to vote for them if the clean up some of their mess, but it won’t be enough. Barring a total meltdown by McCain, he has already won Florida, and probably the election. At this point I don’t see anyway either candidate can repair the damage wrought by the DNC. It won’t be the candidates at fault, it’s the failed process.
@Frederick – I live in an historically red state (apparently gradually turning blue), and trust me on this: you should not envy us. I’ve even contemplated moving to, say, New York State, where the weather is, from a native Texan’s viewpoint, awful (and I’ve experienced it on tour with a musical group; Buffalo in winter is nowhere I’d want to be very often), just for the privilege of living in a blue state. If you want a reliably Democratic outcome, stay in New York. If you love a good fight, move to Texas… not that I’m really recommending you do that.
Bryan, the DNC’s behavior toward Florida’s Democrats has led me to wonder seriously whether I belong in today’s DP. Like Moi;), I simply cannot condone what Dean and Brazile and others like them are doing. It isn’t even remotely democratic… and IMHO it should therefore not be Democratic. It’s not that I long for the DP of my youth; that had its own set of problems. But I look back at the very real abilities of FDR and JFK to solve difficult problems, and yes, I do want that, even expect that, from a president. I once respected Howard Dean, but AFAIC, he can do his nation a favor and go home now.
Frederick, I lived in Rochester for almost a decade, and it is a reliably Republican area and currently paying the price of the policies put in place to appease the corporate interests of Kodak, Xerox, French Foods, Bausch & Lomb, GM etc. who have all left or are leaving as is convenient for them and their shareholders. Your area may be Democratic, but the state is in play. Florida, Texas, and the rest of the South are still in the grip of the segregationists, Christianists, and corporatists. That Florida is a swing state while both houses of the legislature are nearly two-thirds Republican is a monument to political “inventiveness”.
The attack on Florida by the DNC is a monument to the total lack of political reality that is a hallmark of Donna Brazile and the reason she has been associated with so many losing campaigns. That she is still listened to, that any of the “consultants” are still listened to, is a window into the mindset of the elite that still values the opinions of those who have been consistently proven wrong over those who were right. Being wrong is apparently the only path to punditry – to be creditable you have to fail‽
At some point you have to draw the line to maintain your self-respect.