Union Co. NC, Democratic Party Forum

Democratic Convention Mini-Posts: Day Four

2008-08-28T19:21:00.003-05:00

This election cycle, the Democratic Party's National Convention aligns with the beginning of my semester. While I wish I could write more extensive pieces, I suspect I will have to limit myself to shorter reactions and impressions of what I see and hear.

It has been said that actions speak louder than words. It is difficult to imagine a more powerful statement than holding an acceptance speech before not a crowded convention center but a full stadium.

It says more about Obama, who wants to involve as many people as possible, and the people, who are hungry for change, than I can.

Enjoy Stevie Wonder and the speech.

Democratic Convention Mini-Posts: Day Three

2008-08-27T18:23:00.002-05:00

Last night, I was impressed by Senator Clinton's speech -- more than impressed. I won't claim I wasn't worried part way through. After all, it began to appear that she was beginning to give her usual campaign speech. Indeed, she did -- with one exception. She reminded us of why she ran. Then, she reminded her followers that the reason for any campaign is not (and must not) be about the candidate as a person. It must be about the vision that the candidate espouses.

This afternoon, she landed her second hit by moving that Obama be nominated by acclimation. There were only brief flickers when the political mask cracked and it was possible to see how much it cost her to make that movement towards unity.

It was, nevertheless, a historic moment. We now have the first serious African American candidate being pushed over the top by the first serious woman candidate.

Now, we will see if the next big one-two punch lands. Tonight, Senator Biden and President Clinton speak -- two men known for speaking their minds and being able to reach their audiences. In addition to the future of the race for the presidency, the present and future legacies of these men are on the line.

While Biden's speech, given that he is the man who will soon be one heartbeat away from the presidency, may be the more important of the two, President Clinton's speech may be more significant.

There are few men who are more capable than President Clinton of rising to such an occasion. I'm sure if you are reading this, you are going to watch (or have already watched) his speech and are looking forward to seeing it as much as I am.

Democratic Convention Mini-Posts: Day Two

2008-08-26T18:15:00.007-05:00

This election cycle, the Democratic Party's National Convention aligns with the beginning of my semester. While I wish I could write more extensive pieces, I suspect I will have to limit myseff to shorter reactions and impressions of what I see and hear.

Today is an important anniversary. It is Women's Equality Day. Today, we honor and celebrate women finally winning the right to vote in national elections in 1920. The winning of that right, too long withheld, was no small achievement. It was done in the face of stiff opposition by those who believed that women were physically and mentally beneath men. Women were considered children.

Tonight, we will see one of two things: With the exception of Nancy Pelosi, the most important woman in the Democratic Party is giving the big speech at the Democratic National Convention. She will either inspire our party or wound our party.

The challenge before her is, like that of the women who won the right to vote, is to show that she is not a child and that she can accept her defeat with the dignity and and poise that she has shown time and again in the past.

This will be no small achievement. Like her, I have lost elections and had to stand in public and be mature in front of the press when part of me wanted to hide or lash out. When I had to face that challenge, it was only in front of a local audience. People in Monroe, Union County, and throughout the greater Charlotte area watched my name flash up on their televisions -- in last place. Nevertheless, they universally said how proud they were and how much in awe they were that I got out there and ran.

Now she will have to do the same thing with the world watching.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am, like those people who spoke to me, in awe of what Senator Clinton did in her campaign. I watched her, clearly tired, keep moving and reaching out to those who were considering voting for her. I watched her make her pitch that she was the best candidate for the job. I am sure, in her heart of hearts, she still believes that.

If she wishes to remain merely a politician, she can damn Obama with faint praise or praise him well but drag her feet once the campaign leaves Denver. If she wishes to become the exemplar of something new on the American political scene -- the stateswoman -- is the real question tonight.

I have no doubt that she can do it. I desperately hope she will do it.

I must admit to a certain bias in this hope. It is not because of my preference for Obama. I believe she would be a fine president and, if she won, would have been proud to cast my vote for her.

The reason I want her to prove herself a stateswoman is because there is a good chance that my one year old daughter will be in the room when she speaks -- much like I was when the Apollo astronauts landed on the moon. I desperately want to be able to tell her that she was there and watching when Clinton gave the speech that inspired a new generation of women -- her generation of women -- to reach higher than they ever have before and believe that there is no job, no office, and no dream to great for them.

Senator Hillary Clinton has the opportunity tonight to prove that the American Dream is equally accessible to both halves of the country. I am looking forward to watching her do it.

Democratic Convention Mini-Posts: Day One

2008-08-25T23:00:00.003-05:00

This election cycle, the Democratic Party's National Convention perfectly aligns with the beginning of my semester. While I wish I could write more extensive pieces, I suspect I will have to limit myself to shorter reactions and impressions of what I see and hear.

One of the themes of the Obama campaign has been hope. I suspect the only word you are more likely to hear or see at one of his rallies, meetings, and appearances is change. Listening to tonight's presentations, I think I learned something important about hope. Hope is not an unachievable dream or delusion based on denial. Hope requires and acceptance of the reality of the situation without being so dominated by that situation that you cannot imagine it changing for the better. That acceptance of a reality that can be changed echoed through all of the speeches.

You could hear it in Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s references to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Dr. King knew he might have to pay with his life to help bring about a better future for his children and his friends' children. I am sure he would have been more than proud to see his friend's son serve his country in the House of Representatives and continue that legacy of hope when he spoke at the convention of the party that forced through the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.

You could hear it in President Carter's video presentation as he discussed the failures of our government in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Yet based on his work with Habitat for Humanity and in working with people around the world, he could still believe that it was possible for those failures to be overcome.

You could hear it in Senator Ted Kennedy's speech. He knows he is dying. Nevertheless, he has not given into despair and believes that he may yet live to see his life's goal -- the establishment of health care as a fundamental right rather than a privilege of the elite. With a nod to the premature deaths of his brothers, however, he bravely and selflessly reminded us all that the most powerful hopes and dreams outlive those who hope and dream -- even if they pass before they become reality.

Finally, you could hear it in Michelle Obama's speech as she remembered her husband looking into his rear view mirror at the greatest expression of hope any of us can ever see -- his child -- and committing himself to giving her more than he had.

What you could not hear but could clearly see in the eyes of the delegates was the audacity to hope that their candidate could undo the tragic results of eight years of incompetence and mismanagement and rebuild American prestige and dignity at home and abroad.

For the first time in a long time, they once more can dare to believe in that most resilient of things: the American Dream.

An Appeal for Unity

2008-06-04T21:01:00.002-05:00

I wanted to post a brief message this evening, now that the Democratic Primary season has come to a close. All of us can take great pride in the fact that our Party, once again, has made history by breaking a barrier that has, for too long, stood in this nation. Although the nomination will not be official until our Party meets in Denver this August, we have selected the first African-American to be the nominee to be President of the United States.

It is not our first historic nomination. We are the Party who first nominated a Roman Catholic to be our Party’s Nominee (Alfred E. Smith in 1928). Of course, we as a nation more fully committed to the promise of religious tolerance when we elected the first Roman Catholic President, John F. Kennedy, in 1960. We were the first major Party to nominate a woman to be Vice President (Geraldine Ferraro in 1984).

Senator Clinton, although she did not win our Party’s nomination, also has a claim to history. She is not the first woman to have run to become a major party’s nominee. She is, however, the first one to have almost become that nominee. While the results, statewide and nationwide, may not be what she and her supporters worked towards and worked for, everyone who has looked at the actual numbers -- especially here in Union County -- agrees that there is much she and they can be proud of.

When we voted in the North Carolina primary and met in convention in May, we were choosing which way North Carolina would vote in Denver this summer. Our focus on the decision to be made in Denver, however, should not blind us to the fact that Denver is not the end of our race. It is the beginning.

While Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may have some differences, when compared with the Bush-McCain led vision of the Republican Party, their overarching vision is the same. In order for us to insure this vision, we need all Democrats to come together and work for our party’s success in November. I hope you will remain committed -- no matter whether your personal preference for who will be our standard bearer has been chosen or not.

Some thoughts on District Representation for Union County IV: District Representation is not Gerrymandering.

2007-08-29T19:09:00.000-05:00

District Representation is one of the major issues before us in Union County. As we move towards a referendum on this issue, I would like to offer a series of thoughts as to how adopting District Representation will benefit Union County.

Some of the opponents of District Representation have looked at the map of the proposed Union County Commissioner Districts and concluded that what they see is a case of Gerrymandering by the Democratic-dominated State House to increase the power of Union County Democrats at the expense of Union County Republicans.

Such accusations are part and parcel of the political process, so it is unsurprising that they have been made. In this case, however, it is inaccurate. After all, the counterclaim could be made that maintaining the current system of at-large representation for all County Commissioners is nothing more than the equivalent of a Republican gerrymander. By drawing the current districts of the County Commissioners to include all of Union County, we effectively maintain districts that are drawn for the advantage of the Republican Party. Perhaps this is why Commissioner Baucom tried to manipulate House Bill 1226 into preserving the current majority – a move that not even the Commissioners who would have benefited most could stomach.

The ultimate test of gerrymandering goes back to the old Latin phrase Qui Bono (Who profits or benefits)? Under the current gerrymandered system, the Republican benefit. If the Democrats wanted to make a power grab via a gerrymandered system, do you honestly think they would draw a series of lines that would leave them in the minority? Do you think that they would include two open seats that would maintain Republicans who might not be able to win in their districts a chance to keep their place on the County Commission instead of requiring one to be from the purported Republican stronghold of the west and another from the purported Democratic stronghold of the East?

The drive to increase representation of the underrepresented is not gerrymandering. It is an attempt to guarantee the type of representative government envisioned by our Founders.

Some thoughts on District Representation for Union County III: District Representation protects all of the Voices in Union County.

2007-08-27T21:52:00.000-05:00

District Representation is one of the major issues before us in Union County. As we move towards a referendum on this issue, I would like to offer a series of thoughts as to how adopting District Representation will benefit Union County.

Much has been made of the way District 1 was drawn in the proposed Union County District map. Some have criticized it as a guaranteed Democratic district – one that would assure that Democrats will always have a seat on the currently all Republican County Commission. These critiques usually come from individuals who believe it is currently impossible for a Democrat to be elected in an at-large vote across all of Union County in a partisan race.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they say little about the districts that currently lean Republican.

Others have praised the way the district has been drawn because it will ensure that African-Americans will have someone who will represent their particular concerns on the County Commission. Others look at this with some suspicion, arguing that it smacks of racism via tokenism or slows racial integration by reinforcing differences rather than seeking to bring people together.

One of the core values of the United States is that the voice of the minority should be protected from the will of the majority. Our Founders were as concerned with the tyranny of the masses as they were with the tyranny of an autocrat or a group of plutocrats or oligarchs. Like it or not, we currently live under a system in Union County where the voice of the minority is not protected. All such systems, like the enforced one party systems of Fascist Europe and the Communist world, have failed because they became far more about the interests of those in power than the interests of the people whom they claimed to represent. Their halls of government became echo chambers, where a single viewpoint appeared to represent the will of many when, instead, it remained the view of a few magnified by repetition of those who were in power or who wished to be connected to those in power.

By moving to District Representation, we will ensure that not only will all groups have a voice in our local government and all ideas will have an opportunity to be heard. In doing so, the ideas and ideologies of all of the residents of Union County will have a place where they can cross-pollinate and produce better solutions to the problems we face – solutions that will take into account all of the needs of Union County rather than just the desires of one group.

Some thoughts on District Representation for Union County II: District Representation will allow our Commissioners to know their constituents' needs.

2007-08-23T18:00:00.000-05:00

District Representation is one of the major issues before us in Union County. As we move towards a referendum on this issue, I would like to offer a series of thoughts as to how adopting District Representation will benefit Union County.

One of the real challenges for any elected official is staying in touch with the specific and immediate needs of his constituents while maintining enough breadth of vision to see the big picture and assess long term needs of the community. As the number of voters an office holder represents increases, it becomes harder and harder for a representative to know what the people he represents want. This leaves a representative open to the risk of listening to a handful of voices that claim to represent the interests of their constituents. Sometimes, they do. Sometimes, they represent their own interests rather than the interests of the voters.

While this problem may be more visible at the State and Federal level of government, it is an increasing problem at the local level as well. Consider Union County: The 2008 County Budget will be approximately $216 million dollars. There are any number of interest groups who have the time and resources to hire people whose sole job is to make sure that they get more than their fair share of that just under one quarter of a billion dollar pie. Because their connection to voters is diluted across the whole county, our current Commissioners cannot keep their viewpoints grounded by staying in touch with their constituents. This is not a critique of current or recent Commissioners – it is simply not humanly possible for anyone to stay in touch with approximately 155,000 people (it may be more) on a regular basis.

By moving to District Representation, we will allow our Commissioners to know what their constituents want and need rather than relying on special interests to tell them what their constituents want and need.

Some thoughts on District Representation for Union County I: District Representation Benefits Commisioners and Constituants

2007-08-21T09:17:00.000-05:00

District Representation is one of the major issues before us in Union County. As we move towards a referendum on this issue, I would like to offer a series of thoughts as to how adopting District Representation will benefit Union County.

Right now, each of our County Commissioners represent all of the voters of Union County. As such, their constituency is diluted across several groups with very different interests, needs, and outlooks. The most notable of these is the East-West split in the county – a split further complicated by the unique needs of specific municipalities like Monroe.

While it is true that our County Commission is charged with applying their wit and wisdom to serving the county as a whole, they are also charged with representing our needs as individual voters. At some point in the past, when Union County’s population was smaller, less diverse, and more geographically homogeneous, it may have been possible to reconcile these two competing requirements. Given the explosive growth that has brought a variety of new voices to our community’s landscape, it is no longer possible for anyone to adequately balance these tasks.

By moving to district representation, County Commissioners will be able to speak to the specific interests and concerns of their constituents and, in doing so, make sure that all residents of Union County has their concerns represented.

It will also make certain that the residents of Union County know which Commissioner they can contact to make certain that their concerns are heard. Right now, a resident who wants to make their concerns known to the County Commission must attempt to contact all of its members and hope that three of them will listen. While the number of Commissioners that residents need to contact will not change under the district plan, each resident will have a Commissioner who is responsible for representing them and, as such, should be responsive to their needs. They will also still have two other Commissioners, whose responsibility will be to consider the needs of all residents of Union County, to petition for assistance.

Renewing our pledge

2007-07-04T21:57:00.000-05:00

“…our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Two-hundred and thirty one years ago, a group of men came together in Philadelphia and made this pledge to one another when they founded our nation. They did not make that pledge lightly. They knew that they were declaring war on the most powerful nation in the world and attempting to do something that had never been done: conduct a revolution that would found a nation which not only derived its power from the people, but made sure that the people retained that power rather than surrender it to a monarch or aristocracy.

That they succeeded was more than amazing. That we have maintained their vision – albeit sometimes imperfectly – is equally remarkable.

What remains is for us is to renew this pledge to one another. That we – as the inheritors of Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Livingston, and Sherman; of Hamilton and the other signatories; and of Washington and the other brave men and women who risked and gave their lives so that we could, in Thomas Paine’s words, “begin the world over again” – once more pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to one another and embrace the rights that liberty grants us and shoulder the burdens and risks that are required for us to maintain and preserve that liberty.

This I pledge to you, dear readers. Happy Fourth of July.

To the Vice President of the United States: A Request

2007-06-26T16:06:00.000-05:00

Today, I received an e-mail from the Committee for a Democratic Majority, asking me to sign a petition objecting to Vice President Cheney's absurd assertions that he should not have to obey the law and, as mandated by Executive Order 12958, follow the same rules as everyone else in the Executive Branch for handling information (If you wish to add your name to the petition, you can do so by following this link). I thought I would share what I wrote:

You may remember this line from the past, Mr. Vice President. It was uttered by Joseph Welch when another man entrusted by voters had gone too far: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"

I realize that the only way to remove you from office is an Impeachment. There is a more honest and more honorable way -- one that might show that you recognize that your handling of this matter and your self-protective sacrifice of "Scooter" Libby does trouble your conscience.

Resign.

Show the world, Mr. Vice President, that you still have some sense of honor. Resign.

I don't have much hope that the Vice President will listen to my plea. If he is unwilling to listen to the Constitution, who is he willing to listen to?

Letter to the Editor on School Funding

2007-06-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

(This Letter to the Editor appeared in the Wednesday, June 13, 2007 edition of The Enquirer Journal. Unfortunately, the Board of Commisioners has not yet changed its position and it looks like they will end up in court over this issue and over their firing of Mike Shalati, who today alleged in his court filing that, in addition to making poor decisions, they broke the law.)

Dear Editor,

When I ran for the School Board this past election cycle, one of the cornerstones of my campaign was an equitable distribution of our educational resources so that all of the children of Union County would have a fair chance at building a bright future for themselves. Such a promise is at the heart of public education and our national ideal – a goal that is founded upon our highest belief that we are all created equal.

In order to protect this equality, we entrust our elected officials to oversee our public affairs wisely and judiciously. We do so with the full knowledge that they will have to face difficult decisions and balance the needs of some against the needs of others. It is, in many ways, a thankless job as there are always those who will second-guess the decisions made.

Yet some decisions are so poorly made that I wonder how they could have been conceived. Apparently, the Board of Commissioners can find the money for questionable expenses, including $1 million for a new pump station that more than a few people have pointed out is a handout to developers rather than a service to the people of Union County. They also found money to pay $75 an hour for a public relations consultant, until she left the position at the beginning of May.

Money can be found for these expenses but not for the basic operating costs requested by the Board of Education?

As seems all too usual with these Commissioners, the lack of funding will disproportionately impact the eastern half of Union County and, ironically enough, those schools which most need this support.

This is not a political issue. The School Board is a non-partisan elected body that consists of people from all parts of the political spectrum who, I am pleased to report, are all interested in what is best for the children of Union County. It is a question of the competence and values of the County Commissioners who refuse to make the responsible decisions that are needed to support the children of Union County.

I urge all readers to make their displeasure known to the Board of Commissioners in the hope that they will reverse their decision.

Sincerely,

Matthew M. DeForrest

The Dispensable Line

2007-02-23T10:17:00.000-05:00

OK, I know that it’s the political equivalent of the one-liner: a light, humorous statement designed to help the speaker and his audience relax into the moment. I know that he has used the same line, to my irritation, before now. I also know that, given that we are discussing a President’s Day speech, I should perhaps be more charitable to President Bush than I am about to be.

Unfortunately for me (and now, perhaps, you, dear reader), I believe that history and words matter.

It seems an innocuous enough statement: “I feel right at home here. After all, this is the home of the first George W.” What could be more natural a claim for our President to make? All Americans should feel at home at Mount Vernon -- even if such feelings are tempered with a respectful awe for what the Father of our Country accomplished and stood for in life and, through his Last Will and Testament, in death.

It is the end of the second sentence that rankles: “the first George W.” I don’t think the President or his speechwriters quite understand the significance of this formulation and what a poor light it sheds on President Bush by comparison.
Calling George Washington “the first’ echoes a title that Washington rejected more than once. He could have been king. Washington was urged to take on the title of King by some of his officers at the end of the Revolution but he rejected it. When the Newburg Conspiracy of 1783 raised the specter of the Continental Army marching on Congress in Philadelphia, he diffused their anger and frustration with a poignant reminder of what duty and ideals meant when he could have lead them and made himself an American Cromwell.

Instead of gathering more power to himself, he surrendered his commission -- and the dictatorial powers that it gave him -- back to Congress. It was an act so startling that George III declared that, if he did it, he would be the greatest man in the world. We, as a nation, considered it so magnificent an event that Congress commissioned John Trumbull to paint “General George Washington Resigning his Commission” and hang it in the Capitol Rotunda, placing it on par with the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the victories at Saratoga and Yorktown as a moment of decision in the formation of our nation.

Washington was also the man who chose to leave the Presidency after two terms, believing that it was imperative to set the precedent of having new presidents arrive because of an election rather than a funeral. In doing so, he, as always, placed the ideals of republican government over personal glory.

Washington made a career of walking away from power.

Our current President’s administration has made a reputation for gathering power to itself. It has been a part of its policy and part of a deeply held belief in executive authority held by many of its most prominent members, including President Bush and Vice President Cheney. It has done so to the point that more than one political cartoon has caricatured the President as King George.

I have no difficulty in hearing the President comparing himself favorably to prior Presidents. I have no objection to President Bush drawing parallels between himself and John Adams -- a President and patriot whom I greatly admire. There are a multitude of parallels between Adams’ Alien and Sedition Acts and the USA PATRIOT Act, for example. I don’t even have a problem with President Bush comparing his attempts to wrestle with international terrorism, one of the subjects of his speech at Mount Vernon, with President Thomas Jefferson’s actions against the Barbary Pirates -- even though Jefferson was a founder of the Democratic Party.

But Washington? No. He was, as the title of James Thomas Flexner’s biography states, the indispensable man of the time. To try to say you are on par with his accomplishments, his character, and his sacrifice is an act of extreme hubris.

If I may borrow a construction for Lloyd Bentsen: Mr. President, I have studied George Washington. I admire George Washington. George Washington is a hero of mine. Mr. President, you’re no George Washington.

I suspect that no one is -- or can be.

Thanks for all of the support

2006-11-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

I would like to thanks all of you who supported me for the Union County Board of Education. That you were willing to entrust your children's futures to me is humbling. I'd also like to congratulate Dr. Sharon Gallagher on winning the election. I am sure she will continue to work hard for the citizens of Union County.

While I did not win, other good Democrats did. Unofficial results indicate John Parker and Kimberly Morrison-Hansley won their races and I'd like to offer my public congratulations to them (I was fortunate enough to congratulate them both in person already.). So did some good people who are not members of our party. All of them will need our continued support as they confront the very real and very pressing problems that confront Union County's Public Schools.

The election may have ended but the issues and challenges we face have not. We must all continue to work towards making Union County a better place for all of its citizens. We must continue to be invovled.

Thanks again everyone.

Matt

Our Not-Quite School Bond

2006-08-22T19:39:00.000-05:00

Perhaps I am somewhat biased. After all, I decided to run for the school board because I was concerned that Stony Rushing’s values did not give pride of place to education. Nevertheless, I find the current fiasco over the referendum being played out (or, rather, not played out) by the Union County Board of Commissioners a shocking embarrassment.

How is it that our elected representatives can be so short sighted as to play politics with the future of the children of Union County? More than most, our schoolchildren need our elected officials to act as public servants. Because they are too young to vote, they have no choice but to trust the adults to act like adults and put the public’s business before their own.

Instead, our County Commissioners – and Stony Rushing in particular – have intentionally missed meetings in order to block the bond from moving forward. This has put the future of our schools at risk and, assuming that this cannot be resolved quickly, has increased the costs Union County will have to pay to have the ballots ready in November.

As far as I can tell, we, the citizens of Union County, have no immediate recourse to deal with this turn of events. We have no choice right now but to worry about whether we will face increased costs to build the new schools we so desperately need and waste money because we cannot tell printers what to print.

We will in November – if we remember what has happened now.

If we want responsible government, we need responsible elected officials. We must not vote for those who have authored this farce – even if we must write in the names of other candidates.

PRIMARY ELECTION DAY

2006-06-23T23:24:00.001-05:00

PRIMARY ELECTION DAY

May 2nd was a day of mixed emotions for me. As an old-school, tie-dyed in the wool, liberal Democrat I was naturally disappointed to know that, in this election cycle, I would be excluded from participating in the election of our most basic local governing officials, the County Commissioners. By not putting a single Democrat on the ballot for County Commissioner, OUR party has conceded the race without a fight. Still, there were votes to be cast… As in all elections, when I approached the poll worker she asked for the usual information: name and address. But because this was a PRIMARY election, she rightfully asked for something additional: party affiliation. Rather than whisper, under my breath, (democrat), I loudly and proudly announced, for all to hear, “I’M A DEMOCRAT!” Let me tell you, heads turned (what few there were in a polling place on a primary election day) and I saw a few smiles. It felt good to announce to the world that I am, indeed, one of the brighter Union County citizens; that I am not responsible for the unnecessary disaster in Iraq, the Constitution-busting mess in Washington, or the childish name-calling and finger-pointing in Monroe! I think you will all find it refreshing and cleansing to make this same pronouncement. I urge you to give it a try! A good way to start, and to support the local Union County Democratic Party (and promote the ucncdp.org website), is to go here to purchase and display your own PROUD DEMOCRAT bumper sticker. Try it, you’ll like it!

Welcome To The UCNCDP.Org Blog

2006-06-23T23:18:00.000-05:00

WELCOME

Welcome to the ucncdp.org blog. This blog has been created by the members of the Website Committee of the Union County, North Carolina Democratic Party. The blog, in the best Democratic (and democratic) tradition, is intended to provide for the free flow of ideas and opinions. To that end, we will moderate the comments to this blog only in extreme instances of potential slander or libel and, in the interest of keeping the blog “family friendly”, we will moderate comments for extreme profanity. In all cases where comments are moderated we will make every effort to not change the intent of the writer and we will note that the comment has been moderated. The primary focus of this blog will be local and regional issues of interest to Union County Democrats, comments and posts on any issue are welcomed and encouraged.The opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors only and do not represent the official view of the Union County Democratic Party.