For Immediate Release

The Rockford Independent

Re: Letter to the Editor

June 16, 2006

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in polities or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” – Thomas Jefferson

Please...read that again...This Jefferson quote is particularly relevant to my letter. Jefferson foresaw the dramatic polarization we experience today, down to the smallest villages in our country. The candidate forum, held by the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce on June 5, 2006 turned out to be a Republican candidate forum after Albert Abbasse, the Democratic candidate for the 28th district was invited and then uninvited. We’ve heard time and again from various media outlets that while many Republicans may be disappointed with their Republican representatives, the Democrats don’t offer a viable alternative because all they do is criticize and don’t have any ideas of their own. On the contrary, Democrats have some very good ideas that we want to share with you, the voters, but because of acts like we saw at the Rockford Area Chamber of Commerce, we don’t get equal opportunities to express them.

While we at the Abbasse Campaign are disappointed at the slight, the issue should be more about the unwillingness of the forum hosts to explore all candidates regardless of the name plate they run under. A spirited and productive debate of the issues could have been the beginning of a dialogue to mend the partisan divide; a way for ideas and issues to be exchanged and evaluated. Neither one person nor one party has cornered the market on good ideas, but because of the partisan chasm in our government today, a good idea is ignored simply because it originated from the opposite side of the aisle. This has got to change if we are to move forward as a country and as a society.

There is a cancer in American politics today:  The badge a candidate runs under is more important than that person’s ability. People used to vote for a candidate simply because they believed that a candidate was, “THE BEST PERSON FOR THE JOB.”  Today, most vote for a candidate simply because he or she is a member of his or her own political party, regardless of their ability to do the job.

This partisanship cancer has divided our nation and the divide is getting wider with each election cycle.  As the width of this gap increases, less and less can be accomplished in our State and Federal Legislatures.  For Michigan and America to be better, we need to explore all of our candidates before we vote.  Perhaps someday we will once again become one America, rather than Red America and Blue America. Our founding fathers never intended for our parties to be absolute, and neither should we.

Remember… Without a middle class, there is NO Democracy!

Jeff Winston

Campaign Manager

Abbasse for State Senate

616-780-5174

jeff@abbasse.org

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