For about half my adult life I’ve been an Independent with moderate to liberal leanings and so most of the time, like it or not, I have ended up voting for the Democratic Party Candidate in the general elections.
Another thing that influenced my vote in the past was the response, or lack of, I received when writing or calling one of my elected officials. When contacting an elected official from the Republican Party I never, I repeat, NEVER got a response of any kind. On the other hand, when contacting an elected official of the Democratic Party, with a request or message, often I received a form letter in the mail, within a few days, thanking me for contacting their office. The letter was never hand written or even personally signed but it was at least an acknowledgement of the fact that I had contacted the person’s office. I surmised that if my elected officials couldn’t remember I had contacted their office long enough to hit the print button on a computer, then they probably wouldn’t remember any of their campaign promises after winning an election either.
I think those days have just come to a screeching halt!!!!
Someone sent me an email claiming that Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was blocking efforts by the Judiciary Committee to bring contempt charges against Karl Rove. The email I received went on to list all the Democratic Party members of the Judiciary Committee and urged people to let the Committee members know what they thought of Nancy Pelosi’s actions.
I decided I could easily do that and as I reached for the phone and I decided to begin at the bottom and work my way to the top of the list. The bottom name on the list was Representative Keith Ellison and when a female voice answered the phone I told her the reason for my call by saying, “I know Rep. Ellison is on the Judiciary Committee and I hope he will go ahead and press contempt charges against Karl Rove even over the objections of Nancy Pelosi. It is my understanding that Pelosi is blocking this as well as having taken impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney off the table. Democrats need to find out what Karl Rove has over Pelosi and deal with it and then do what is right, which is make this criminal Administration and their advisor's pay for what they’ve done to the American people."
The woman then asked if I lived in Rep. Ellison's district to which I truthfully answered "No". She then asked if I knew who my Representative was and of course I answered, "Yes, but my Representative in not on the Judiciary Committee and I specifically want to get a message to each and every person on this Judiciary Committee."
The woman then went on to say, "Our office is limited to taking messages from those in Rep Ellison's district only. You can, however communicate this same message to your Representative who can then communicate with Rep. Ellison."
By this time I was fuming so I said, "In other words the Democrats are going to do what they darn well please and any little excuse they can use not to listen to the people of this country is just fine with them. I specifically remember when Rep. Ellison was campaigning for office, him stating a number of times that he would represent all the people. Here is his chance and he has a convenient excuse. Apparently, just as Barack Obama is doing now, Rep. Ellison said what he needed to say about representing all the people in order to get elected. Now that he’s in office he knows he can do as he pleases and all he has to do is claim someone is not in his district. Whether you take down my message about the Judiciary Committee or not, you might want to tell Rep. Ellison that the more get lost type responses like this one, and you may well loose more than just my vote in November. I was willing to suck it up and vote for Mr. Obama in November just to keep John McCain out of office. With a response like this one though, you could pay me a billion dollars and I wouldn't vote for any Democrat on the ticket now."
OMG - I was absolutely fuming!!! I hope this was a one-time, one-person response and that others will at least listen. Right now I am just too angry to find out but hopefully I’ll calm down in the next day or so and at that point I will call more people on the list. In the meantime, maybe I will email all of them and see if the response is a bit more positive.
At this point, my vote in November is most definitely not an assured thing.
