Dear Politician: (an open letter you may cut & paste)

Dear Elected Member of the Democratic Party:

I probably voted for you in the past election. Not because I like you, but because the other candidate most likely to win was an option I would not be able to tolerate.

I won't make that mistake again.

I could have voted my conscience, but we both know picking any other candidate would have the same ultimate effect of writing in someone I actually I thought could represent me. I chose, instead, to vote against the one I thought would do the most harm, by casting a ballot for the one whom I believed would do less harm, but would prevent the worst from happening.

It was akin to voting on which finger to get cut off. (Go ahead, pick.)

I usually say, "it's like being told you're getting a vote on getting a sharp stick in the eye, and showing up and finding the choices are 'right' and 'left.'"

But I feel in this case it's finding out they're holding a vote on cutting off one of your fingers, and you'd really like to say, "pinky," because you don't play piano and can count on one hand anyway, but you find the vote is open to a lot of other people, and most of them are voting either "thumb" or "index."

I'm sure they have their reasons for their choices - maybe they dislike the way you point your index finger at them, or the things to which you give your thumbs up, and maybe they all think it's the other fingers that are necessary, for observing marriage, rational discourse and having something you can extend whilst sipping tea - but, damnit, if you had to pick just one of those two, you'd really rather it was one and not the other.

And so you try to influence the decision in whatever small way you can.

I'm a registered Republican. Mostly because whenever I try to talk sense to someone who cannot see reason, and they counter logic with name-calling, staring in with, "you whinny, liberal, socialist..." I can say, "what do you mean? I'm a Republican." I do believe in small, responsible government. I don't like a government that wastes the funds its given, nor violates the trust of protection of its citizens. That is why I cannot vote for most of the candidates in the current Republican Party. They are not interested in a republic, they are fascists.

I believe this country is made up of resources, and for it to remain strong, those resources need to be protected for future generations. One of the country's strongest resources is its people, for a country is nothing if not the people that make it up. They need protecting as well.

That is why we have governments - to protect people from those that would do them harm.

I'm changing my party affiliation to Democrat. Again, not because I like you. So I can make whatever small gesture I can to ensure you, and people like you, represent the real will of the people - more that you have the interests of the people in mind - when you do the job you are being paid to do, or you will find yourself out of a job.

As I said, I cannot vote for those who have corrupted the party of Lincoln and Roosevelt, creating a circus of hatred and anti-intellectualism, all to obscure their giving of the country itself away to corporate greed. To the extent that you continue to work with them, I cannot vote for you, either. I'm changing my affiliation so I can vote against you in the next Democratic primary.

No amount of special interest cash-funded ads will dissuade me that you've sold my interests to them. You may think you're getting more votes by getting their support, but you sure as hell are losing mine.