(Great letter – promoted by blogswarm)

It’s been a week now and I’ve finally gotten the time to write a letter in response to Chris Thompson’s article “Tauscher’s a Tough Target” where he states that Calitics “contributors could find only a few local politicos who don’t care for Tauscher – one of them a high school student.”  I’m proud to be that high school student even if Thompson believes that means my opinion is less valuable.  The letter is as follows…

I’m very disappointed with Chris Thompson’s article “Tauscher’s a Tough Target”

I was indirectly mentioned in his article as an example of the lack of support for Moulitsas and Working for Us in district 10.  He implied that surely there can be little support if a high school student, such as myself, is getting recognition on the issue.  Surely a high school student’s opinion is not as valuable as one of an adult.  He failed to mention that I am a voting high school student, Youth Outreach Coordinator of the Lamorinda Democratic Club, and currently working to create the Contra Costa County Young Democrats. 

It is the belief promoted in Thompson’s article, that some are less worthy to have an opinion, that was the focus of my blog about Tauscher in the first place.  Her pro-corporate attitude was not my target but rather her stance that politics is for politicians and that the people should just smile, nod, and fund her campaign that turned me off of her. 

Robert Kennedy once said, “All great questions must be raised by great voices, and the greatest voice is the voice of the people – speaking out – in prose, or painting or poetry or music; speaking out – in homes and halls, streets and farms, courts and cafes – let that voice speak and the stillness you hear will be the gratitude of mankind.”  Well, Mr. Thompson and Congresswoman Tauscher, we are speaking.

There has already been a great diary on the East Bay Express recycling stale insider dogma by calling Ellen Tauscher “moderate” instead of using the label “big business” which is far more accurate.

But that wasn’t the only major blunder by New Times Media reporter Chris Thompson. The more glaring example of his failure to understand the dynamics was his dismissing of the viability of the primary challenge to Tauscher. Thompson said that this was a “pipe dream” and declared that Democratic Party activists “won’t win” despite all of the evidence to the contrary.

That is what “they” said about Tauscher bagman Steve Filson in CA-11 who was stomped by 24 pts in last year’s primary in a more conservative district right next door. It was a landslide, he was beaten like a drum. Filson is a punchline in East Bay politics.

That is what “they” said about the primary campaign against then-Congressman Jeffery Cohelan who was again in a neighboring district to Tauscher but lost his re-nomination even with the union support Tauscher won’t enjoy.

That is what “they” said about Joe Lieberman, who had been the Democratic Party VP nominee yet also lost his primary in no small part to the netroots.

If you want to know what bands are playing, check out the East Bay Express. But don’t expect them to help you understand political dynamics they don’t get.