I just mailed the following letter to the Maine Democratic Part office (via snail mail, since their website includes no email contact info):
To Whom It May Concern: 22 August 2005
This is to inform you that I am officially ending my affiliation with the Democratic Party and am re-registering to vote as an Independent. Please remove my name from Democratic Party membership rolls. I no longer consider credible and will no longer support any political organization that favors maintaining an American military presence in Iraq "until the mission is completed."
My letter continues below.
Recently, Ed Kilgore and Will Marshall of the Democratic Leadership Committee, stated, "By dwelling obsessively on U.S. misdeeds . . . anti-war critics betray an anti-American bias that undercuts their credibility." They also equated "Patriotism" with support for the war in Iraq. They further stated, "Democrats need to be choosier about the political company they keep, distancing themselves from the pacifist and anti-American fringe." Meanwhile, Conservative UCLA corporate law professor, Stephen Bainbridge, calls the Bush Administration "criminally incompetent", and REPUBLICAN Senator Chuck Hagel says, "The longer U.S. forces remain in Iraq, he said, the more it begins to resemble the Vietnam war," and "the White House is disconnected from reality."
Evidently, it's not only the White House that's disconnected from reality.
I believe that the Bush Administration lied to drag the United States of America into an unnecessary and strategically insane war in Iraq. I believe that the Administration's pursuit of the war in Iraq has been and continues to be criminally incompetent and that the continued presence of American troops there no longer serves any "Noble Cause" (whatever that might be at the moment) or American interest. Maintaining our military presence in Iraq is in fact, counter-productive to American interests - not to mention wasting the lives of valorous American troops and innocent Iraqi civilians and destroying the health of our military.
Furthermore, I believe that "staying the course" now in order to leave Iraq "peaceful, stable and prosperous" out of some misplaced sense of responsibility to "clean up the mess we've made" is not only impossible but actually makes matters worse for everyone concerned. Moreover, it is a strategic error every bit as insane as engaging in this conflict to begin with.
Few of us begrudge the original votes of Democratic Senators and Congressional Representatives to give the Administration authorization, perhaps even in spite of their misgivings at the time. However, continued support for the war in light of the current facts represents bad judgment of the lowest order.
This reflects not only my personal views, but also those of virtually everyone I know across the United States, be they Democrat, Republican or Independent. None of these folks are "pacifists" pre se; all of them support the country and the troops and angrily resent being called "anti-American". And there are so many of us now, it is obviously a disconnect from reality to be calling us a "fringe."
If Kilgore, Marshall, the DLC and those politicians affiliated with the DLC truly represent the "leadership", the official view and the policy direction of the Democratic Party, then the Democratic Party and its leading political candidates no longer represent me. As a life-long Democrat, I never thought I'd say this but, at the moment, I'm seriously contemplating supporting a Republican for President in 2008 - Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Unlike the supporters of the Bush Administration and its incredibly destructive foreign policy, which evidently now includes the DLC, my loyalty is to my country before "my party."
Please forward this message as you see fit.
Sincerely,
This is not an idle threat; I actually sent this letter and I really am re-registering. I'm not urging anyone else to do the same, but if enough people did, perhaps the DLC would start to get the message.
It's time to stop reasoning with the DLC about their positions and to make them do the work to get me back. If they ultimately decide that I'm not worth the effort or that their "strategies" for winning elections are more important, then the Democratic Party really has lost me and my votes.
My sincere apologies to Dr. Dean. I believe that, for the most part, his positions and strategies are correct, but I don't think it's going to be enough to defeat BushCo as long as the DLC continues to think that there's some mythical center to this issue.