Regarding Michigan and Florida

As a member of the State Central Committee (SCC), I voted to move the date up in Minnesota. We, however, followed DNC regulations. The Republicans followed a similar process prior to the legislation to move the date forward.

I have been elected to a local leadership position twice by my local party. As a result, I am a member of the SCC. In addition to local leaders being on the SCC, delegates are elected at our Convention every two years. There are a few other ways to become a delegate, but the bulk of the members are elected locally. Though I don’t know for sure, I would assume that this process is quite similar in Michigan and in Florida.

Our SCC is a representative Democracy. If someone has an opinion about how I vote, I would think that it would be best that they talk to me. If they don’t like my views, they can run against me in the next election and bust ass for candidates up and down the ticket. I find it unfathomable that the members of the governing bodies of Michigan and Florida’s Democratic Party would be so selfish as to vote to disenfranchise all voters in their states.

Bottom line, the party leadership in each state made the choice. That choice was ratified by elected officials. They must now pay the price. Anyone who blames the DNC obviously has little knowledge on how the process actually works. Saying that it is undemocratic is saying that our nation’s representative democracy is undemocratic as well. You get a vote when you vote for those who represent you.

K&R

Michigan voters are sick of New Hampshire limiting our choices. Michigan has been dragged into the conflict by the Obama/ Hillary conflict. Up to that point, no Michigan ian was 'begging,' to please don't punish us. / Yes, in Michigan delegates are known as precinct delegates and attend the county convention and the basis of the Democratic party organization. / At the behest of the UAW don't be so sure , back in November of last year; that resentment of New Hampshire's primacy did not reflect the common will of grass roots Michigan Democrats. / Want to Punish us, then again punish us come next November. Its just 17 electoral votes.

A lot of states would like to be one of the first. To change the current system would take an action by the DNC, not by states arbitrarily changing their dates.

Each state sends national delegates to the DNC as well-perhaps that would be a better way to implement chane? Is the system less than perfect? Of course. But going around the rules that exist to prevent possible chaos is not the way to do it. This is a horrible situation, but it is one that was brought on by the states themselves not by the DNC.

decades it was the subterfuge that Southern racists used to oppose racial integration being forced on them by the federal government.

If someone belongs to a voluntary organization, e.g. the Democratic party, and they don't like certain of its rules (like the order states vote in, primary vs. caucus processes, race/gender goals for delegations, etc.), they have options. They can work within the organization to change the rules they don't like or they can drop out and possibly form a new group with "better" rules.

Most of us join a group like a political party, because we think we can accomplish more together with others than we can individually. To succeed at this, however, the members of a group have to work together to achieve a shared goal rather than each going off in different directions which they perceive will benefit them individually.

Michigan and Florida (and many other states) are not happy with the way our primary schedule is set up. How do we fix this? By each state exercising its "right" to leapfrog the other states until the campaign starts even more absurdly early than it does now? Or do the members of our organization work to improve its rules for the future (since you can't improve them for the past), so that we more effectively achieve our common goals?

"Michigan voters are sick of New Hampshire limiting our choices."

That's not how it works out is it? It Mich had stuck to it's original election date it would have been far more pivotal in selecting the nominee this time around. Sometimes that's the way it goes.

Btw, when the DNC voted on IA, NH, SC and NV to go early, the MI delegation voted for that, and didn't lodge an objection.

This issue is whether your state gets delegates to the national convention, how many you get, and who those delegates are pledged to support. Because your state and Florida, two of the 50 states, decided to violate DNC rules, your entire process is invalid.

You will get whatever the remaining 48 states' delegates, who did follow the rules, decide you will get. Michigan violated the rules, now it must be punished.

As for November, if Michigan, with its rampant unemployment, doesn't vote Democratic in the fall, it deserves to remain the bottom of the barrel for the economy of America.

I don't care if Michigan goes at all. Not as if we had a choice. Our primary vote's importance was eliminated by Iowa, New Hampshire. / Want to blame someone . Go after the UAW. They have been a central focus for the resentment of New Hampshire and others.

But we do it by moving the DNC, not by states deciding they'll blow off the rules they've already agreed to follow.

I would love to see Michigan go before New Hampshire. I don't want to see Florida go early, because it is not Democratic state and stinks of the GOP.

Michigan Democratic action vs NH was not necessarily Michigan first. But, resentment of NH demanding the right to always go first. / Actually, if Mich went first, other states should feel peeved. / Its really about the elimination process. What candidate gets eliminated by whom. All states need an equal right at the elimination process. And that process need have all elements of the party an equal voice. that is not the case now.
Get a load of the Detroit Free Press' Democratic map of the United States. Reaction from today's Detroit newspapers. Pretty odd looking country. ? No Great Lakes or Gulf coast shoreline to delineate the outline of the USA.


http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080529/OPINION04/805290340

similiar to what MI or Fl did last Winter. Actually, I am afraid the UAW / MI/FL bold leadership will slither away because, we broke the rule mantra - whips one into line.