Silencing the opposition

Sacha Millstone of Boulder, a Clinton supporter and delegate to the Democratic National Convention, has learned just how free, open, and democratic today's Democratic Party is — not very.

In a private email to a fellow delegate, Millstone dared to complain about how the Obama campaign was treating Clinton supporters. The other delegate ratted her out to the party's thought police and suggested she be stripped of her delegate status:

Apparently the Political Director of Colorado's Democratic Party, William Compton, took the suggestion very seriously and told Millstone via e-mail, "You are directed to come in to the Party Headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate..."

Millstone, who worked on the campaign for Hillary Clinton, considered the e-mail a threat."I think that one of the reasons I got this letter was to intimidate me," said Millstone. "It sounded very totalitarian. I thought it sounded undemocratic and I was completely shocked."
…

"I think that it was calculated to have an impact on other delegates and I think this kind of communication does have a very chilling impact on other delegates because people become afraid to speak up. They become afraid to say what they think."

Millstone added, "You can't get unity by telling people to shut up."

I suspect that the PUMAs aren't going to take kindly to this sort of heavy-handed behavior. Could this convention still get interesting, and be something more than a slick, boring infomercial? Dennis Keohane thinks so. 

tags: clinton  democrats  intimidation  obama