sgifford's Journal: Michigan's fiasco of a primary

There has been lots of attention to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, but less attention to the very strange, and somewhat disturbing, Michigan primary. Over the threats of the national parties, Michigan's legislature voted to move our primary to January 15th, making it one of the earliest. This fall the parties followed through on their threats: The Democratic National Committee is refusing to seat any of Michigan's delegates and prohibiting the candidates from campaigning here, which the Republican National Committee is counting only half of Michigan's delegates. This effectively gives Democrats no vote in their primary, and Republicans only half a vote in theirs. Many voters don't realize that there is no constitutional right to vote in the primary, and that their vote is essentially at the whim of the parties. If you are a Michigan voter unsure what to do, or a voter anywhere disturbed by all of this, you can learn more about the 2008 Michigan Democratic primary and how to let party leaders know your opinion at WhoStoleMiVote.org.