This is the first ever guest voice on ShortWoman. It is a letter which will be going out both to the Clinton campaign and to the Democratic Party. I will let the author introduce himself. Please enjoy.
Dear Senator Clinton:
I have been a lifelong Democrat. I spent my first Presidential election as a voter phoning polling turnout reports back to Dukakis campaign headquarters in Fort Worth, TX, so that we could maximize Democratic turnout in key precincts. I have donated and put my time in for all of my adult life. I have always voted a strict party line and, frankly, watching the lemming-like behavior of the Republicans with regard to the impeachment of President Clinton can say with certainty that I will never vote for a Republican for any office.
Those things said, I cannot and will not vote for Hillary Clinton for the Presidency of the United States. As a child I was promised that anyone could grow up to be President. For the last 20 years only 2 families have controlled the White House and your election would extend that to 24 or 28 years. That is the death of the ultimate promise of American opportunity.
I have been disenfranchised by national politics much of my adult life. I have watched as my party has become preoccupied with rancor and political expediency instead of real, meaningful service to the electorate. Your campaign this year has demonstrated that your concern is limited to only those states that serve your political expediency and have little regard for the electorate as whole. This is a failed strategy. And while it served to elect William Jefferson Clinton, it was unable to deliver despite the fitness of Al Gore or John Kerry for service.
I am a physician. I have watched as my own profession has failed to listen to my needs politically or even serve its own end. I have watched as my professional organizations have failed to lobby for meaningful things like Medicare funding caring instead to focus on distractions like tort reform. The answer, and you know this, is not some slipshod universal healthcare plan that involves mandates of private insurance. The answer here is one of real vision, a vision that you have had almost two decades to formulate and have failed to do so.
I have watched you pander to insurance companies, to big oil interests, to the political right, and to religious groups. In short, everyone except actual people who could actually vote for you.
Enough is enough, Senator Clinton. You refuse to endorse a 50 state strategy for your campaign and I refuse to support your campaign under any circumstances. If by some slim chance you become the nominee, I will not vote for you. I will not vote for your opponent either. Whether I withhold my vote or represent some small number of votes for a third party, I cannot say.
Senator, you have failed me as a Democrat and I will not allow you to continue to do so.
Thank you for your time,
Warren Magnus, DO
Excellent letter Warren, and the message you send echoes my own take on the situation. I am 56 and have not failed to vote in any presidential election since I became eligible to vote, but if Hillary manages to wrest the candidacy from Obama via the Rovian tactics she has adopted, then she will not be receiving my vote. Her belief that the party would reunite behind her suggests to me that she seriously misunderstands the electorate. If Obama isn’t the one to run against McCain, then we’d all better get ready for Bush term #3.
Thank you, thank you. I could not agree more. To withhold a vote from a Democrat will be a first for me, and will be painful, but I refuse to endorse her behavior as being representative of the party I love and have worked my heart out for my whole life. If that’s what a Democrat looks like nowadays, the party will have to change to get me back. I’ll still come out to vote for the down-ticket Dems that are still recognizable as Dems, but how many others will do the same?
This letter is one that democrats must pay attention to.
I have spent my adult life with a Bush or Clinton in the executive branch.
I have also seen since I was a pre-teen a series of mediocre presidents and our country slipping away.
Now, I am seeing that on the verge of not just democrats but, the country, finally finding a president that will bring us excellence and help to redefine the country, the Clinton camp not only has held our party hostage but, some how has managed to get the bulk of the traditional media to carry their water and try to influence the primaries in her favor.
I despair at the thought that we are so close to turning around the path set for us by Nixon and all who followed down the slope.
If we lose this opportunity to finally be able to make our country a proud one again because our party was bullied into letting this nomination be stolen away, I will, along with most democrats, watch our party die.
Excellent post! I could not have expressed it better, those are my feelings exactly.
She.needs.to.stop.now.