I am involved in several grass roots organizations and I have a web site with a substantial readership. I will share this letter, not only on that web site and on numerous internet message boards, but by email. I have already spoken to a large number of people and I am confident that the opinion I am sharing with you is widespread, and that you will receive more letters with similar sentiments. I am also confident that the internet is the last frontier of free speech.

Main stream media is telling us that the Democrats lost in an overwhelming landslide, and our only hope as a party is to become more like the Republicans or continue to suffer “humiliating defeats”. I reject his out of hand. The election of 2004 may look like an overwhelming victory for the right wing agenda, but in fact there are many who are expressing doubt in its legitimacy. If Senator Kerry had received approximately 70,000 votes in Ohio that were given to Mr. Bush we would be talking about President-elect Kerry, today. Yet we have no way to verify that the vote count was fair or accurate. This is wrong. If I go to an ATM, I get a receipt. If I go to the store, I get a receipt. If I order something online, I get a receipt. When I mail in my tax returns, I have a record. Yet, when I vote, I have no way to be sure that my vote was counted accurately. It should not be hard to find support for fixing this. Any candidate from any party can be the victim of dishonest elections, but the biggest losers are the people.

This may be the most immediate and important concern that I have. We must work to restore the Fairness Doctrine that was demolished by President Reagan. We are only hearing one side of the story, and it is NOT our side. If you, and the Democrats, take up this one issue and succeed we can count on making significant gains in future elections.

We MUST NOT elect a minority leader from a “red state”. This was Senator Daschle’s problem all along. His need to balance the will of a state that supported President Bush’s agenda at the 60% level while simultaneously trying to promote the Democratic point of view led to charges of him being an “obstructionist” that he couldn’t overcome. Our next Senate minority leader needs to have the freedom to represent both his constituents AND the Democratic Party, and the Democrats need to start proudly emphasizing their clear differences with the Republicans. Don't bend to the pressure to be more like them.

I do not support President Bush, nor do I support the extremist right wing agenda that he is promoting. Privatization of social security will make us all less secure. Continued denial of our failures in Iraq should not be tolerated. I simply do not believe that elections in Iraq will result in peace in the Middle East. Extremist right wing judges, who have passed the “litmus test” of a history of anti-women’s rights rulings and of ruling in favor of corporations over people, should not be confirmed, at least in the most extreme cases. We need to take steps to stop the hemorrhaging of jobs to other countries, and we need to end deficit spending. We need to restore fiscal sanity to a government that, for the past four years, has seen an increase in discretionary spending, not a single Presidential spending veto, and a net cash flow FROM the states that did not support President Bush and the right wing agenda TO the states that did. We didn’t ask for this, and we shouldn’t be forced to pay for it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and rest assured that the Democrats in congress will continue to enjoy overwhelming support as long as they remain true to our goals and ideals.

Sincerely,