- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I am sitting here at my desk, so angry over the Lieberman decision, that I could spit nails. Since spitting nails is impossible, I have come to only one conclusion and action that is possible.
Honor in government is no longer possible in the 21st century. No matter which party you side with, both have disgraced this country and your article only shows a few of the ways in the recent past that we have been disgraced.
I was a Republican for 32 years, when this year I changed my registration to Democrat in order to vote for Barack Obama in the Pennsylvania Primary. (In PA you must be registered for a party to vote in a primary AND you may only vote for candidates within your party) Previously, I have always split my vote in general elections, preferring to vote for the individual candidate and not along any party line; however, this year it seemed mandatory to change parties. While I did not "feel like a Democrat", preferring moderation in all things, I could no longer, in good conscience revert to the Republican Party. I contemplated either staying in the Democratic Party or re-registering as an Independent, but had not made up my mind until today.
Having lived through the Nixon administration and the Clinton administration with their individual scandals, I always believed that each President involved was acting out of a sense of self preservation, whether it be through illegal action, such as Nixon or among other things the selling of the Lincoln bedroom and the questionable elicitation of campaign funds such as Clinton. Under George W. Bush the game changed and it was not a question of self preservation, but the continual acts of eviscerating the Constitution, invasion of a sovereign nation to oust the head of state, who, while truly despicable, was not responsible for the horrendous destruction caused on September 11, 2001. Bush's sins, so to speak, were of the mortal kind and could very well lead to the utter destruction of the Constitution of the United States of America and to our way of life and standing in the world.
Today, I have made a decision. November 4, 2008 was the last election I shall ever participate in and the last time I will have ever voted. It is my conclusion that no matter the party nor the individual, honor was a concept that died with the end of the last century. When a President-Elect and the Senate Democrats can allow an unscrupulous man such as Joe Lieberman to continue to hold such a powerful (yet in his hands, impotent) committee chairmanship and insist on no substantial penalties for his nauseating and traitorous behavior in this past election, that is the day when I say goodbye. I can no longer believe that there are honorable men and women in government; therefore, I shall no longer enable them to come to power by giving them my vote.
It is a sad day for me, as it always must be when one's illusions are destroyed and for the first time in the nearly 15 years my father has been dead, am I glad he is not here to watch as I tear up my voter registration card and make this vow. He, above all, knew what honor was, and it was he who taught me the value and precious right voting was. Very sad day, indeed.
