Found this letter that one of the farmers I was working with in Michigan wrote a couple of years ago.

May 12, 2006
Grand Traverse Democratic Party
To Whom it may concern,

I am a lifelong Democrat. I can no longer support this party. I believe in the rights of workers and opportunities for all. I believe in regulation for monopolies and for companies that do business which requires national infrastructure (phone, energy, telecom). I believe in giving immigrants a fair shake. I believe in education! I believe in mental health care. Mostly I believe in the Constitution and the civil rights of all Americans.

The New Deal has been torn down by people who hate any form of government. Our Democrats have stood by quietly as our rights have been eroded. Homeland Security has become a secret police that does the will of a right wing fringe with impunity. Laws have been passed that allow federal government agents to imprison Americans without trials or publicity. While our congress people may have voted against these bills they did not use any political capital. When Governor Granholm. Senator Stabenaw, and Senator Levin all endorsed John Kerry days before the Michigan primary they were carrying out the will of a badly misinformed DNC and they lost us the presidency to a weak and unpopular Republican. There had been strong debate and the democratic process was working until incumbent politicians endorsed a hand picked DNC ringer, who voted for the war despite a complete lack of evidence. When the Democratic party leadership changed the legal definition of Michigan's primary to a "caucus" thereby precluding the required public announcement and reducing the number of polling places and changing the locations of the polling places, and selectively notified only one candidate's headquarters about these changes, the voters in Michigan were disenfranchised.

I have been 100 percent supportive and enamored with Carl Levin for many years. However, even though he is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, he voted for the war on flimsy contrived evidence. He continues to go along with the 9-11 commissions paranoid conclusions. Finally both Senator Levin and Senator Stabenaw declined to filibuster Judge Alito even though his record clearly pointed to a judge who always sides with the prosecution.

Several weeks ago I wrote Bart Stupak about my liberal views on immigration. I have yet to get a response. However, I went to his web site to find his viewpoint. There was no comment on immigration. I personally had contacted Bart's office about the intimidation and threats leveled at Michigan farmers by the completely corrupt FDA. (Which is now staffed by drug company lawyers and lobbyists, and routinely suspends the conflict of interest rules when voting on drugs). I found that Bart was unwilling to take a stand against corruption. I did not get a response to my second letter to him months ago about the farmers struggles with and positions on the FDA. I find that Bart is all about helping constituents when it is easy and you don't have to take a stand, but his position on the serious issues confronting America today is nebulous at best. I would rather see anyone with conviction in his office than see an ex cop who won't do the tough duty. Who won't make an unpopular move. Who won't join John Conyers and demand the impeachment for treason of a president who contrived an enemy and took us to war. Bart just wants to get re-elected, he doesn't want to be a leader. Hey Bart, you swore to uphold the constitution!!

On a state and local level I see a police force in Grand Traverse County getting its funding from seizing the assets of suspected criminals. When a person is suspected of a crime and even before they are charged they have their houses raided and their belongings removed. Those who are convicted have to pay for their stay in jail before they get off probation. (Hardly a good start). The police force needs to puff up every drug case and exploit every suspect to get assets to sell. I see little or no mental health services, and our education funding is in bad shape. The rights of citizens are constantly being eroded. However, the Democrats are working on grant money for organic farming and pandering to other well-funded special interest groups.

I do not want to see gay marriage or gun control or abortion as Democratic issues while Americans imprison and torture innocent, and uneducated peasants. The benefits from those causes are things the wealthy always have had, and the poor will never get through special interest politics. Why polarize the electorate and alienate half the working class for the sake of the desires of a handful of upscale upwardly mobile people in the liberal activist community? Meanwhile, as Democrats move to the right and try to stake out positions on the critical issues just to the left of a self-destructive right wing fringe they will find they have no base. The people of America are moving on and YOU Democratic organizers will be the last to know.

I am guessing that I am in the majority of Americans who feel that America will only be served when politicians from a new party serve in congress and Carl Levin and Bart Stupak are retired.

As a working class woman - nice to know the author only sees me as an object to fuck, with no rights or ability to make choices at all.

I make something like $20,000 a year. I live in a 50 year old two bedroom one bath house in a working class neighborhood that the upscale elitist people look down on because most of my neighbors don't look like me. I drive a 1994 Thunderbird that is hanging on but I don't know how much longer it's going to last and I don't know that we have the money for another halfway decent car. Once I took my husband to see the disgusting overconsumption of a house that we were renting for over $4,000 a month, and on the way out someone else was pulling into the neighborhood and looked at my car and my husband and me like we were a fucking roach that they wanted to step on.

I spent three fucking years in the twelfth circle of hell working drive-thru at Arby's.

The right to make my own goddamn fucking reproduction choices is not a fucking issue that only applies to fucking rich women. I will be in a goddamn back alley shoving a coat hanger up myself if I have to if I get pregnant.

Oh, and I like how he has gun control. Like, "Oh no, don't you even take a little thing of metal away from me. But hey, the right of women to make their own decisions and control their own life? Sure, go ahead."

mopeymisty i have a message for you: stop it. every post you ever make is a mope. i don't care how sorry you feel for yourself. i get it -- you're "jaded", so jaded you're post-jaded. when you get the crybaby shit out of your system, let us know

til then the world will go on not indulging you very well and you can go on sulking about

read the damn letter mistymoper without predisposition, keep your "issues" the hell out of it, and lets talk about what Hells really like..cuz you ain't been there

your car is a junker..thats your bitch??

shit..

to be fair, arby's *is* pretty gross.

the 5 for 5 (now 5 for 5.95) is pretty good imo, not as good as lil ceasars or subway but still..i did hear somebody lost a finger in the slicer once though

One of my favorite jobs ever was working drive-through at Hardee's during the morning. But that was during college - I wasn't facing the prospect of making $3.35 an hour for the rest of my life (and I was still covered by my dad's health insurance).

I can certainly relate to Misty's feelings about her reproductive rights. I don't see how that's a "cry-baby" thing.

I will be in a goddamn back alley shoving a coat hanger up myself if I have to if I get pregnant.


You and a million other women. It is a power thing, as we all know, and made an issue to keep our eyes and anger off the source of such dilemmas...

One of my favorite jobs ever was working drive-through at Hardee's during the morning. But that was during college - I wasn't facing the prospect of making $3.35 an hour for the rest of my life (and I was still covered by my dad's health insurance).

I can certainly relate to Misty's feelings about her reproductive rights. I don't see how that's a "cry-baby" thing.


because its just one more thing to feel bad about tbf..tell me how all the liberal claptrap and clamor (sic) advances shit one inch..? answer is it doesn't. its that anax-special funky monkey brand of morality flaring up again. is access to abortion in the richest countries REALLY the most important women's issue in the world (clean water comes to mind)? are women's interests separate or separable from worker's interest? if we take up this Cause with especial vigor why not the other 1000 worthy Causes? how do we juggle them all..and more meaningfully how do we deterrmine which if any are primary?

gotta keep our eyes open and our heads up..never gonna save the world by crusader-ing to save the world, which i think you know

crying ourselves a river sure ain't the solution

I guess I tend to be susceptible to distraction when it comes to women's health and animal issues. But you guys are right about keeping focused.

The issue of contention this week has been health care, and we wouldn't have to worry about reproductive rights if we had a good single-payer health care system in place. Endlessly frustrating that Obama starts his "conversation" on health care without inviting anyone to talk about a comprehensive system that would cover all.

I think you missed the point MM.

First, advocacy for reproductive rights by the party, and other issues, will only benefit the upper 10%. Also, they are the right wingers' pet issues as defined by them, and there is no winning those battles with them on their turf. The author is not opposed to same sex marriage nor abortion.

I think that if we were battling against the actual right wing program, instead of battling against what they have everyone suckered into thinking their program is, we would much sooner make progress across the board.

As it is now, the same people who argue against left wing economics are the most vocal on the culture war issues. We are locked into an approach that continues to fail.

The right wingers don't care about abortion, same sex marriage nor gun control. They use those to gain support for them from working class people, and most importantly they use those to crippled the Left. As it is, the fifth column within the Left can claim to be left wing because of their expressed positions on the culture war issues, and then use that to promote right wing ideas on economics and power.

The upper class already has all of the benefits of the liberal program. They are green and organic and ride bikes and have access to health care and enjoy reproductive freedom, are free from persecution for being gay, they have "gun control" - they hire their guns, and they enjoy the protections of the Bill of Rights. The upscale liberals - 10% of the population if that - want to have equality for themselves with the upper class in those areas. They don't care about the rest of us. They are antagonistic and adversarial toward the working people.

What good is reproductive freedom in the current context? The number of people with no serious access to health care whatsoever is increasing at a rate of 14,000 a day.