Friday, October 31, 2014

The North Carolina Democratic Party's unfortunate letter


Today, a letter to Scott from the North Carolina Democratic Party arrived at our house.  Scott had said previously that he wasn't interested in these political mailings and so we should just recycle them.  I always open envelopes before recycling them and their contents to make sure nothing inside contains sensitive personal information.  If something does, I shred that piece. 

This is the letter that awaited me.  The red is my addition.  I recommend carefully reading the first large paragraph and then the circled paragraph. 

Click the image to see a larger version.

Exactly what kind of shit is this?  As a lifelong Democrat and a strong advocate of voting (ref., for example, my recent entry urging everyone to vote), I am appalled at my party stooping to tactics that amount to blackmail.  Really?

Ms. Keever, I don't know you, and I don't know your organization's policies, but if I were in your shoes, I would be embarrassed to have my name on this offensive correspondence.  I do know that I am embarrassed on behalf of all Democrats that this communication exists. 

I am one hundred percent in favor of encouraging people to vote, but this letter simply goes too far.  Had I received this letter at Scott's age, I might have refused to vote for any Democrats just on principle. 

I hope this is the last letter of this sort the NCDP ever sends.




5 comments:

Michelle said...

Whoa, that is wrong on so many levels. I, too, am a lifelong democrat, but this would tempt me not to vote just out of spite. Does she really think her "scare" tactics will cause more people to vote? She threatens to contact you to find out why you didn't? How about, "None of your business" for an answer, if you owe an answer at all. Hope they remember this the next time they send out a fundraiser letter...They better have some great spin doctors to fix this, and right before an election is not a time to piss people off. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Dave Drale said...

Dear Mark,

I worked for the Town of Chapel Hill for some years, most of that time in close contact with the elected and appointed bodies.

At that level, even the elected are volunteers in reality. I suspect the same thing is true of the Wake County Democratic Party.

Some of the people you get in those jobs are really great. Most are genuinely well meaning, even if they're self-important and not very bright. (True of many, I'm afraid.)

And a few are really unpleasant pricks.

While I understand the desire to damn the organization because of those pricks, it's wrong because we can't just walk away from it as we could a store or professional who had a woman like that where I had to deal with her.

I will further add that this year, most of the ads I've seen have been negative--on both sides. There's a couple candidates I'm going to vote For, but in most cases I'll be holding my nose.

I paid a great deal for the right, and I'm going to vote; but doggone, Clay Akins?

Dave

Mark said...

I completely agree that we can't walk away just because one person does something stupid, and I'm certainly not going to walk away. Also, I did vote. But, yet, this year the candidates in many races are particularly unappealing.

old aggie said...

I got postcards like that - one from the Republicans, another from the Democrats. The language was a little less offensive, but it still felt Big-Brother-ish to me, and not even sealed inside an envelope! I put both cards into the pile with all the other nice political postcards that clog my mailbox each November: they're great for scraping up the hairballs my cat gifts me with now and then ... hmmm, maybe I should send thank you notes to the candidates for providing such useful items. ;-)

Mark said...

That's a fine use for them.

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