An Open Letter to the Democrats

November 8, 2006 /

Dear Democrats,

Congratulations!  I am delighted that you have come in to serve as a balance to the freaks that have been running this country for the last 6 years.  We desperately need some moderation out there, someone to keep things under control so that we don’t end up in a theocracy or a monarchy anytime soon.

I find it distressing, however, that it appears that you could not have won this race without the Republicans shooting themselves in the face.  As I see it, you won because some Republicans couldn’t keep themselves from harassing young boys, or at least being complicit in allowing it to continue.  You won because some Republicans couldn’t keep their racist thoughts inside their heads, so let terms like “Macaca” come out.  You won because we are failing miserably in Iraq, violence appears to be escalating and shows no sign of getting any better.

More important issues, which I sadly fear only swayed a small minority of those who voted you into office, are that we had no reason for going to Iraq in the first place.  We were lied to in order to get our soldiers over there, in harms way.  I fear that were the war indeed going ‘swimmingly’, more Americans would be all for it.  Our government has decided to condone torture.  Our government has decided that the right of Habeas Corpus only applies to some.  Our government thinks nothing of spying on its own citizens.  In other words, our government thinks the Constitution of the United States should be used as toilet paper.

I disagree.  I think many voters out there also disagree, but somehow, these issues failed to capture the imagination of these voters.  Voters were turned off by what they considered higher moral issues than torture and spying, they were turned off by sex scandals and racism.  Not that these things aren’t indicative of deep problems, to be sure, but in the long run, they’re not as important as the shredding of our civil liberties.

My wish is that you, dear Democrats, had been elected because you truly were the party of ideas, that you had a plan to get things in shape, and that you had a vision of how to help America achieve its full potential.  I wish that you had run on such ideas, and that we now could get fully behind you and cheer, rather than my own personal feeling of, “please, don’t fuck this up.”

But fear not, it’s not too late.  Now that you are in office, now that you have some degree of power, and you can steer our great land away from the dark side, you can all get together, discuss things, get some great ideas going, and work towards them.  Please, hop to it.  Start making the changes, but not willy nilly…make well thought out, reasonable changes, changes with a long term goal, that will truly help our country.

And please, PLEASE, keep it in your pants, OK?  I don’t want to lose the NEXT election the way the Republicans lost it this time.

Sincerely,

J in California

16 Comments

  • wordgirl

    November 8, 2006 at 12:11 pm

    I agree with you 100%. I think the thing about the Democrats is that we believe in all the human rights stuff and mostly want to treat everyone decently and with respect. However, kindness isn’t what wins elections anymore. You can’t put out fire with a water pistol and I think winning will require a dramatic attitude shift in the way we do business. Republicans call us weak sisters and tree-huggers and then when we get our hands a little dirty slinging the mud back at them, they whine about how we’re waffling and not being consistent. We’ve got a leg in the door now. Let’s hope we can kick some ass with it.

  • Ml

    November 8, 2006 at 12:24 pm

    Well said!! Now if they can just get off their asses and starting doing something original and constructive, then we can all try and get some decent sleep at nights.

  • AdventureDad

    November 8, 2006 at 1:12 pm

    Well said. The democrats did pick up a few seats and things will hopefully be different from now on. But considering all the crap the republicans have done, shouldn’t the democrats be picking up almost every seat? The question I find very scary is, who still votes republican? Things could not possibly go any worse for America and the republicans are still doing pretty well.

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  • Andie D.

    November 8, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    Couldn’t say it better. You hit the nail on the head: “I don’t want to lose the NEXT election the way the Republicans lost it this time.”

    Something to seriously think about.

  • Gina

    November 8, 2006 at 2:16 pm

    You and I must share the same mind, because I was going to post something with exactly the same title and the “please don’t fuck it up.”

    Amen, sista.

  • Py Korry

    November 9, 2006 at 7:47 am

    Great letter!!!!!

    Adventure Dad raises a good question of who still votes Republican these days? Sadly, a good chunk of the country doesn’t seems to mind the corruption, the lack of morality, the human rights violations, the spending of money in wreckless ways, the endless war mongering, the hatred of civil liberities, and the racism the Reps embody.

    Now that the Dems are in control, I hope they can articulate a vision that more and more people will support.

  • Maya's Granny

    November 9, 2006 at 11:20 am

    Great post. I couldn’t agree more.

    Did you see the election night Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert coverage? Stephen, in his persona as the rabid Republican, was upset about the Democratic wins, until he realized that the Dems had been in power for two minutes, and already they were losing the war.

    What Stephan says ironically, the GOP will soon be saying seriously. Wait for Rush to start on this line soon.

  • eric

    November 14, 2006 at 9:48 am

    A mixed bag here. I don’t consider myself a Democrat. I’m a conservative, and the GOP is not conservative any more, so I’m not one of them. But I must protest when you say there was no reason to go into Iraq. Just listen to the words of Democrats at the time, and they were every bit as convinced as Bush that Saddam had a WMD program — which he did, just sort of a mothballed one. We found untold amounts of ingredients to manufacture chemical weapons, for example. Second, some of the terrorists we flushed out of Afghanistan were moving into Iraq. Third, Iraq had sheltered some of the terrorists associated with Al Qaeda. And of course the terrorist training camps. Saddam also was offering rewards for the families of suicide bombers. Iraq was a state sponsor of terrorism, whether or not there were WMDs. Why you Democrats can’t remember this, I do not understand.

    That said, the war has been mismanaged, and Rummy, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

    One further word of caution. A CNN poll just before the election showed that most Americans still agree with the Reagan philosophy — government is not the solution, it is the problem. 54 percent polled thought the government is trying to do too much, and should let people solve more of their own problems. Only 37 percent thought the government should do more. Just remember that, Democrats, or your grandiose socialist schemes will come back very soon to bite you in the butt.