From Oct. 6, 2007: I quit the Democratic Party today

On Oct. 6, 2007, I sent this e-mail to the DNC. Shockingly, they never replied!

To Whom It May Concern:

This is to advise you that I have quit the Democratic Party. I just came from my local Registrar of Voters, where I changed my affiliation from Democrat to Independent.

I have slowly become disgusted with the Democratic Party leadership since Bill Clinton's presidency. It was under Clinton that the party began to lose its way, abandoning the poor and middle class in pursuit of corporate dollars for its campaign coffers.

Things have only gotten worse since George W. Bush quite literally took the White House. I have watched incredulously as the Democratic leadership has repeatedly given a highly unpopular president almost everything he wants, particularly as it applies to that horrendous war in Iraq.

All it would take to end the war is for Congress to cut off the funding for it; but the Democratic leadership refuses to do so. It also refuses to even consider impeaching Bush and Dick Cheney, despite numerous blatant violations of both the Constitution and the law. Had the party behaved this way during Vietnam and Watergate, thousands of additional U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese civilians would have died, and Richard Nixon would have finished his second term in office.

But what finally pushed me over the edge was the Congress' recent waste of time in which it voted to censure MoveOn.org for simply exercising its right to freedom of speech. If they can find the time to do something that idiotic and corrosive--to a group that has long supported the party, no less!--while our troops continue to die in Iraq and 36 million Americans have no healthcare coverage (among other pressing matters), then the Democratic Party is no longer worth my support.

So, after a decade-plus of slowly becoming disgusted with the Democratic leadership, I have finally said to hell with it and changed my party affiliation to Independent. I will continue to support individual Democratic candidates who share my values; but if you think I'm giving another dime to the party that produced such piss-poor excuses for leaders as Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, then you're sadly mistaken.

I didn't leave the Democratic party; it left me.