(This post is in recognition of River Daughter, one of the people who will join me in making sure that once the present hue and cry dies down, the work to improve our country's politics will not.)

Many Democrats are being heavily pressured to vote for Senator Obama on November 4. The pressure comes from many directions and, as will no doubt please those who exert it, it does take a toll on those of us who are committed Democrats but who do not feel comfortable voting for Senator Obama. I am not comfortable voting for Senator Obama, even if Senator Clinton or Senator Biden would like me to be.  Regardless of whether and how much Senator Clinton truly minds how Senator Obama and his DNC promoters treat her and her supporters, I do mind.

I mind.

I mind because I watched one candidate belittle and demean the other on the basis of her gender. I mind because I have noticed that that same candidate is perfectly willing to rely on Senator Clinton when he needs her help but actively worked to prevent her having an equal opportunity to become the Democratic presidential contender through the procedure specified by DNC rules at the roll call vote in Denver.

I do not hate Senator Obama. I do not love Senator Clinton.  Hate and love: these words are applicable to personal relationships, not to my attitudes toward politicians who have no idea who I am as an individual and who I do not know as individuals.

What I do have for Senator Clinton is tremendous respect. I respect her for her many years of public service in the name of causes that I care about.  But I respect her even more so because as far as I can tell she keeps her promises. So, when she promised to campaign in every last state no matter how many times Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, and other supporters of Senator Obama told her to quit, she campaigned in every last state, no matter that she was told that somehow to continue to give people the opportunity to vote for her was divisive or disloyal. Senator Clinton also promised to campaign for whoever the Democratic nominee turned out to be. She is keeping that promise even though she is certainly aware of the irregularities by which the Democratic Party selected its nominee.

But those are promises Senator Clinton made. I never promised anybody that I would support the Democratic nominee no matter how he or she behaved in order to become the nominee. I never promised anybody that I would support the DNC regardless of how it decided to treat the rights of Clinton delegates or whether it remained faithful to its own procedures for selecting a nominee.

I would hope that if Senator Clinton knew of my views, she would understand that I respect her for keeping her promises. I hope and I definitely trust that she is sophisticated enough to appreciate that people can support her without supporting every choice she makes, including her choice to urge them to vote for Senator Obama.

Perhaps Senator Obama, if elected, will in fact implement programs and policies consistent with the ones I would like to see implemented. Certainly he will implement some that I would not (e.g. his commitment to committing more money to faith-based community organizations and loosening regulation and restriction on how that money is used.)). But this would be true of any candidate for whom I cast a ballot I happily voted for President Bill Clinton's for a second term even I thought "don't ask, don't tell" did not go far enough in securing equality of treatment for gays and lesbians who serve in the military; I happily voted for him despite certain objections I had to his approach to welfare reform. I well understand that one can vote for a candidate even if one does not agree with every position that candidate takes or every policy he or she advocates.

But for me, for now, for this election, I am taking a stand, one rooted in the conviction that enough is enough. I have spent years objecting to the tactics of the Republican Party. If my Party, the Democratic Party, now chooses to play fast and loose with millions of votes, to put forth a candidate whose campaign tactics violate democratic principles and to join with him in that violation, to tolerate a candidate who one minute attacks the most successful Democratic President of his and my lifetime and the next cannot stop praising him enough in order to win the votes of people who did not support him in the primary in part because of his original attacks, then it is my choice - made upon deliberation and reflection - not to vote for my Party's candidate.

Similarly, it is my choice - made upon deliberation and reflection - not to vote for the Republican candidate.

For Presidential campaigns, politics is a matter of spectacle and show; staged rallies; carefully negotiated debates. But for we citizens who believe in the primacy of the power of the people respect for the franchise, which means respect for thoughtful decisions about when to vote for a particular candidate and when not to. Respect. Not agreement, not endorsement, just respect. So as I respect others' considered judgments about how the use their ballot come November 4, I insist upon that respect from them.

When the dust clears, in a few short weeks, those citizens who fully understand the signal importance of respect in a pluralistic democracy will work together to renew that value. I will be part of that group. So will people who will have voted differently than I plan to vote. We will have something in common that Howard Dean's DNC and its current presidential candidate does not hold in common with us: the belief that people of good faith can have powerful disagreements, including about something as important as the choice of chief executive of our country, yet treat each other fairly and with dignity.