The Iraq War shook my faith in this nations government to my it's very core.
With just a little research and investigation on my part, mostly with foreign news sources, I easily came to the conclusion that this war was a buttload of bullshit.
When our nation needed them most, I saw the Democratic party cower in fear.
When the vote passed approving George W Bush's war, I knew then I had no party.
I live in Brooklyn and saw the fall of the twin towers from my rooftop deck.
I watched the pulverized concrete covered faces, tear soaked, come across the Brooklyn bridge and wander home. Vacant Eyes wandering, looking towards each other in the vain hope that someone would explain what happened and why.
That day I joined the rest of the world. I came to know first hand what horror war and violence is.
I would not wish such a day on anyone.
I hold nothing but disgust for this nation's government for the actions it took following 9/11. Fear and outlandish lies were used to coerce our misinformed nation into a bloody, unjust war.
When we needed an opposition party, people brave enough to stand up and risk their careers to save this nation from undertaking what would obvious be the greatest injustice our nation would impose on the world in my lifetime, while exploiting one of our nations greatest tragedies, the Democrats were silence.
I knew, when the vote passed to allow this war, that I had no party in America
...until last summer.
I heard Howard Dean speak on C-Span. I heard him speak things I had never dared to hope to hear from a politician. A frank and honest world view, the obvious lies, the fiscal insanity, the instability of the US's current world position.
It was an honesty and courage I never expected to find in American politics.
Shortly after I Registered as a Democrat and began postering my neighborhood with fliers.
Howard Dean earned my support, time and respect.
Without him as the candidate, I don't see myself as a Democrat.
The problem here in America is that if you do not fall in line with one of the two major parties, you become irrelevant.
In reaction to this fact, the Democratic Party has been on a steady track towards corporate whoredom and dismissing its base. It has relied on presenting itself as a lesser of two evils to bring in its base, then promptly selling them out.
It has failed to realize that this tactic has not been a boon, but a bane. Voters who are faced with a decision between two evils more often choose instead not to vote.
It prospect of voting for an individual that voted not only for the Iraq War, but the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind and the regressive tax cuts utterly disgusts me.
I will once again hold my nose and pull the D lever in the national election in November, but I will be searching for and eventually volunteering for a local liberal alternative to the Democrats in the meantime.
I am tired by not being represented in this nation. If the Democratic Party refuses to fight for progressive values, continues to fear and placate the right, continues to take its base for granted, than it is not my party.