I've been having fun with the fund raising letters I get in the mail. I've supported the Democratic party for decades, but I can't anymore. I do contribute to individuals, but no longer to the party. The other day I got a fund raising letter for DNC Presidential Partners. They were asking for $1000 on nice linen paper (kinda steep for a retired teacher like me, Bernie asks for $3), and included a business card with an email address. So I enjoyed sending them the following email:

I would like to thank you for your recent request to join the Presidential Partners.   For the last fifty years I've been a democrat - giving to and working for the party through difficult times and situations here in Alabama. Perhaps that is why you sent me your nice (was that linen paper?) invitation.  

I wanted to write to you because I was afraid the note I included in my return envelope (yes, I used my own stamp) might be opened by a minion and missed.  You see, I want you and others at the DNC to understand the level of disappointment I have for the party in its current manifestation.

It starts at the top.  To have Rep. Schultz as the Chair of the party is deplorable!  She seems more like a republican than a democrat to me.  Think about it.

She comes out in support of payday lenders and against Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Protection Agency.

She takes money from private prisons and at the same time promotes a drug war that feeds their profits.

She rolled back Obama's restrictions on campaign contributions from lobbyists and super PACs promoting the interest of the wealthy and ignoring that of the people.

For heaven's sakes, she worked on the Clinton campaign against Obama.  It is obvious that she has her finger on the scale of our current presidential primary.  She is doing everything to throw the election to Hillary.  It's back room scheming behavior, like limiting debates and placing them opposite play-off games, shopping days, and the last episode of the most popular PBS series ever.   We need to promote our message and ideas, not hide them.  It is terrible for the party.
 
It really isn't a good idea to have a sitting politician as the chair of the party.  It creates an obvious conflict of interest.  How can she be a fair agent in her own election against Tim Canova?  How can one person find enough time to do both jobs well?  Look at what has happened under Rep. Schultz watch... we lost the house, senate, and most state governments.  

Rep. Gabbard had the moral substance to resign her position as vice chair to campaign for Bernie.  It is so sad that the Chair campaigns directly from the DNC = Debbie Nominates Clinton.

I was fortunate to be politically educated by New Dealers who knew and worked with the Roosevelts.  People that bailed Rosa Parks out of jail and worked with Dr. King.  And I am so sorry that the banks and corporations have bought my party and taken it away.  I no longer trust the DNC, and if I sent you money I think it would be used to promote the Clintons not the people the party is supposed to represent.  So, Rosalind, I can't support the Presidental Parnters nor the DNC until y'all clean house and put some progressives in charge.

We are at a cusp.  Who does the party serve?  The party can continue to be a  super PAC corporate machine, or they can support a peoples movement - loyalty to a political dynasty or power to the people?  

Think of the future!  Follow the lead of the young people.  Listen.

I even got a Hillary letter asking for money. She included a blank area for comments to which I joyfully scrawled in pencil:

I would like to thank you for your public service. However, now is the time for the supreme self sacrifice. Put it to the big banks and the corporations...pull out of the presidential race. Drop out of the establishment. Tune in to the young people. Turn on to the peoples movement.
You would be loved forever!

I got a request from Senator Patrick Leahy, super delegate for Hillary, even though Bernie won every one of the elected delegates in their state of Vermont. I suggested he ask Hillary and the corporations for donations. He made his choice for bankers, not the people. Same deal with Al Franken. Bernie won his state, but he's super delegate who supports Hillary. He got the same reply from me on his fund raiser too, “Ask Hillary and her corporate machine. You prefer them over the people.”

I know it doesn't do any good, but it's fun to vent! I hope the DNC is beginning to panic.