Martin O'Malley

I live in Baltimore, Maryland and right down the street from a Walmart that then-governor O'Malley was championing. A Walmart in this location would have ruined our neighborhood. Due to intense community activism from our neighborhood, the store was never built, but I remember the governor and his role in this, which is why I, a registered Democrat don't support the governor in his quest for nomination as president.

If the rules are such that you can only write positive things about a candidate for the party nomination, then how else are you going to debate the relative merits of the three candidates? If we can't respectfully discuss these things, how will we vet them? If a "safe place" means only hearing the positive, I think you lose something. You lose the (hopefully respectful) communication, and we just devolve into camps of cheerleaders only hearing what we want to.

If these are the rules of the Democratic Underground, then it's a sad commentary on the nature of this forum. I have not been disrespectful, and I am not a troll. I have had my say. Unfortunately, my post was pinned, so the O'Malley supporters won't know these things about the former governor. Pin me again if you wish, but it's a sad statement on democracy in a Democratic Forum