I read Orlando Sentinel’s Democratic columnist Scott Maxwell today—and it inspired me to answer his call for me and my fellow Floridians to join the GOP!
That's right. I will soon be the Seminole Republican!
Put down the gun. Maybe I should explain...
First, unless you’ve been living in the cave with Bin Laden, you know that the DNC has voted to take away the votes of all Florida Democrats. Why? Because the GOP-controlled state legislature voted to move the primary from late March to January 29.
(After the Supreme Court took our right to vote away, we are a tad sensitive about things like that.)
I know Dean is upset that us Dems here think we should have at least as much clout as South Carolina, the most GOP state in the union, and the right, white states of Iowa and NH, but the answer should be a better primary system, like a regional or national primary—-NOT to disenfranchise the voters of an important state by taking ALL of our delegates away.
But Dean didn’t stop there. Dean strong-armed the candidates to agree not to campaign here to really stick it to Florida. AND LEST YOU THINK this is all about principle, the DNC says its perfectly acceptable to take as much campaign money as they want from the state. Nice.
The GOP, seeing the internal strife and backlash, decided to cut their delegates by 50%.
So Floridians are faced with a choice—have our vote count some, or have our vote count for nothing.
The solution is simple: GO to your election supervisors and switch your party registration for the upcoming GOP primary!
Vote for the GOP candidate you can at least stand, OR, vote for the GOP candidate you think will MOST LIKELY BE DEFEATED by the Dem candidate. At least you’ll be making a difference. (And spare me lectures on this not being ethical--our system is unethical, and it is VERY unethical to take our votes away. My conscience is clear.)
Since the top-tier candidates agreed to not campaign here but take our money—I’m not too keen on voting for any of them in the Dem primary. And it wouldn’t count anyway.
AFTER the primary, switch back to being a Democrat. This is not only legal, according to state elections supervisors, this is a movement that they are currently experiencing. You can switch as much as you want.
If enough Floridians do this, this will make our point, our vote will count for something, and then we can go to work to doing what we should be doing in the first place: Working with the DNC to stop the GOP from winning the state’s 27 electoral votes!!!
If the DNC would wise up and target the GOP instead of their own foot soldiers in a major, swing state , (for the crime of wanting a say in our next leader), we might just pull off 2008. My fellow activists have worked their tail off to require paper ballots for 2008, to get good people to run, and to fight the GOP machine here. I hate having to fight my own party leadership-—especially one that promised they would “count every vote.”
I'm still hoping that the state and national party will work this out. I am also hopeful that ONE brave Dem candidate will step up, stand up the the DNC, and agree to campaign in Florida. If not, I’m switching my affiliation tomorrow, and then back to Dem the day after the primary. If you live in Florida— I invite you to join me.
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