My open letter to the Democratic Party

Dear Ohio and Hamilton County Democrats,

I want to express my extreme disappointment and
feeling of betrayal in response to the New York Times
allegations that Paul Hackett has left politics as a
result of underhanded actions by his own party, such
as their calling contributors to ask them to stop
funding his campaign and pressuring him to drop out of
the race for the US Senate to allow more predictable
candidates to take his place.  I refer to today's
article located at the following web address:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/politics/14ohio.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I flirted with the Democratic party during the
presidential election of 2004 when Dennis Kucinich
made his bid, and when Mr. Hackett ran in the
off-season election for the House, I had the sense
that the Democratic party might actually be willing to
stand for liberal issues in the face of Republican
opposition and maintenance of the status-quo.

My hopes were further raised by seeing that Mr.
Hackett was not going to accept defeat and was
runnning in an even more important race, allowing his
voice to be heard where it might be most influential.
To see him leave the race because of his own party, I
believe that what I thought was ideological integrity
was simply the machine humoring its more lefty members
and supporters.  It is similar to my feelings at
seeing the Democratic convention, when Mr. Kucinich
announced that he was stepping aside in favor of the
boring, "safe" moderate John Kerry.

I will not support Ohio or national Democrats in the
future, with one or two personal exceptions, including
Mr. Kucinich.  I do not perceive the Democratic party
as a strong enough opposition to the Republican party.
The party plays the game of politics with as much
dirt as the majority while failing to represent voices
that might bring the true change this state and the
country need.  I will no longer accept the "lesser of
two evils" when the two dominant parties perceive and
act under the same essential guidelines of how to
raise funds and pursue votes no matter what the cost.
I ask you whether a "culture of corruption" is
significantly different from a party that uses
underhanded methods to convince its own candidates not
to run, as the principles of doing what is "necessary"
to achieve the desired ends appear very similar to me.

I am a member of the Green Party of Ohio and have
never been more proud of my refusal to reject the two
prongs of the party system that we as Americans have been
force-fed.  It is not so much that I am enamored with
the greens as it is that from my perspective, the
Democrats lack a solid front in terms of progressive
political ideals.

I also would like to mention that I will not accept a
candidate who can talk about liberalism without
actually living the ideals, such as Howard Dean.  I remember
well his presidential meeting at a Vermont house
showing his affluence, his ignorant insults to
Southerners during the election, and his general
obnoxious nature.  He may appeal to youth who
communicate and recieve their ideas by way of the
internet, but I reject him as a politician showing
cultural bias and lack of awareness of his potential
constituency.  What works in Vermont, sometimes
portrayed as an affluent, liberal wonderland, is
unlikely to work at the national level where there is
greater diversity of all types.

Currently, I am a third year law student at Ohio State
University, lacking wealth, influence, and political
power.  Eventually I hope to change this, and the
Democrats should realize that I am not the only young
person at the start of his career who is disenchanted
and fed up with what the "opposition" has offered us
as an alternative to the Republican agenda.  The
party's platforms as well as its methods of operation
at the national, state, and local levels must change
in order to win my support and that of those like me
in the future.

Sincerely,
 Matt [name expunged]