An interesting post on Buckeye State Blog, “An Open Letter To All 2010 U.S. Senate Democratic Candidates,” urges Democratic U.S. Senate candidates to demand the Ohio Democratic Party (ODP) make no endorsement for that office — regardless that the ODP bylaws call for such endorsement.

Astronauts, and all candidates, should be treated fairly.

A person identified as Bill O’Neill, wrote an extensive response to the Buckey State Blog post, supporting the post’s demand that the ODP not endorse, and said,  “History Is On Your Side. Just Ask John Glenn.”

O’Neill sited one evidence of the fact that endorsement is a dumb policy, the fact that in 1974, the ODP endorsed Howard Metzenbaum for U.S. Senate and snubbed an eminently qualified, former astronaut, John Glenn.  O’neill writes, “In April, 1974, I was on the sidewalk with John Glenn in Dayton Ohio when he, who had flown into combat and outer space for all of us, was denied entry into the Montgomery County Democratic Party’s ‘candidate’s night.’ The reason? He was not the endorsed candidate.”

I was surprised to learn last year that the Montgomery County Democratic Party wouldn’t budge in its resolve to endorse primary candidates.  I wrote about it in this post: “The Montgomery Democrats Decide to Suppress Democracy — Just Like the Republicans.” (I had previously written about the Republican primary suppression here.)

Only one House seat in Montgomery County was contested in last year’s Democratic primary — in the 40th District. The Party endorsed Roland Winburn and printed voter cards telling Democratic primary voters that Winburn was the recommended candidate of the Montgomery County Democratic Party. What an advantage! Winburn won by 56% regardless that his opponent, Victor Harris, a retired Air Force Colonel, ran a great campaign.

In my judgment, Vic Harris, a very sharp person, was a much superior choice. I wrote this post, Victor Harris: Surprised That Local Democratic Party Wanted To Suppress Primary Competition, telling about the campaign.

I have this vision, from O’Neill, of John Glenn, in 1974, standing on the sidewalk outside the Montgomery County Democratic Party HQ — denied admission to a ‘candidates night’ because he was not the officially endorsed candidate. What a defeat for democracy. O’Neill says, “For shame. As you know, Senator Glenn went on to win that primary and the general…but the DAMAGE DONE TO THE PARTY…took years to heal. Years.” I agree — Shame, shame, shame.

O’Neill writes, “Open primaries yield strong candidates.” I agree.

Just yesterday, City Commission Candidate David Esrati — who helped start DaytonOS and whose blog is syndicated here — wrote, “Montgomery County Democratic Party Still Up To Old Tricks.” David says Montgomery County Democratic Party has already endorsed incumbents Rhine McLin for Mayor and Commissioners Joey Williams and Nan Whaley. David lists all the candidates for Dayton mayor and Dayton City Commission here.  And, David lists all of the names of the Party’s Screening Committee here.

Esrati writes, “It is sad that the Democratic party is the least democratic organization that I’ve ever been involved with. It’s a good thing that in 2010 there will have to be an election for precinct chairs- and we have time to organize for change.”

In the March 2010 Democratic Primary, all 540 Montgomery County Democratic Party Central Committee positions will be up for election — one member may be selected from each precinct in Montgomery County — and after the election, the Party will reorganize.

Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson, in an article in Foreign Policy Magazine, The Axis of Upheaval, is predicting a coming “Age of Upheaval.” He writes, “Forget Iran, Iraq, and North Korea — Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil.’ As economic calamity meets political and social turmoil, the world’s worst problems may come from countries like Somalia, Russia, and Mexico. And they’re just the beginning.”

Ferguson sees a lethal combination of forces propelling coming upheavals: Economic volatility, plus ethnic disintegration, plus an empire in decline. “We now have all three,” he says, “The age of upheaval starts now.” Ferguson writes, “The resources available for policing the world are certain to be reduced for the foreseeable future.”

Excerpts from the article:

• The bad news for Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, is that he now faces a much larger and potentially more troubling axis — an axis of upheaval. This axis has at least nine members, and quite possibly more. What unites them is not so much their wicked intentions as their instability, which the global financial crisis only makes worse every day. Unfortunately, that same crisis is making it far from easy for the United States to respond to this new “grave and growing danger.”
• The axis of upheaval is reminiscent of the decade before the outbreak of World War II, when the Great Depression unleashed a wave of global political crises.
• There is reason to fear that the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression could have comparable consequences for the international system.
• For more than a decade, I pondered the question of why the 20th century was characterized by so much brutal upheaval. I pored over primary and secondary literature. I wrote more than 800 pages on the subject. And ultimately I concluded, in The War of the World, that three factors made the location and timing of lethal organized violence more or less predictable in the last century. The first factor was ethnic disintegration: Violence was worst in areas of mounting ethnic tension. The second factor was economic volatility: The greater the magnitude of economic shocks, the more likely conflict was. And the third factor was empires in decline: When structures of imperial rule crumbled, battles for political power were most bloody.
• But no matter how low interest rates go or how high deficits rise, there will be a substantial increase in unemployment in most economies this year and a painful decline in incomes. Such economic pain nearly always has geopolitical consequences. Indeed, we can already see the first symptoms of the coming upheaval.
• The problem is that, as in the 1930s, most countries are looking inward, grappling with the domestic consequences of the economic crisis and paying little attention to the wider world crisis. This is true even of the United States, which is now so preoccupied with its own economic problems that countering global upheaval looks like an expensive luxury.
• The resources available for policing the world are certain to be reduced for the foreseeable future. That will be especially true if foreign investors start demanding higher yields on the bonds they buy from the United States or simply begin dumping dollars in exchange for other currencies.
• Economic volatility, plus ethnic disintegration, plus an empire in decline: That combination is about the most lethal in geopolitics. We now have all three. The age of upheaval starts now.