Dear Dr. Dean and Mr. Brewer

Dear Dr. Dean and Mr. Brewer,
I am writing to you in hopes that you can help my district. I live in Tecumseh Michigan, which is part of Michigan's 7th congressional district. Last week our district was dealt a hard blow, ultra right-winger Tim Walberg was elected as our US Representative. Tim Walberg unseated a moderate Republican, Joe Schwarz who lost The Republican primary.

My plea to you is to make an example of our district in the next election circuit, make a red part of a blue state blue. Part of the problem this time is that some people felt that the Democratic candidate, Sharon Renier, wasn't a strong candidate. My plea to you is help us to find a strong candidate, someone the people of this district can take seriously. This year our district became purple, and many of us here would like to see it become blue, please help.

This district is a middle class district of hard working Americans. We have seen a lot of our high paying manufacturing jobs disappear to be replaced with lower paying, less attractive jobs. We want someone to work for us; we don't expect miracles, just someone who will look out for us. Michigan has gone through some hard times these last few years and we want someone to help change that. We want someone who is going to help us afford health care. We want someone who can help the economy grow strong enough so it doesn't just help those at the top.

This year Tim Walberg heavily out spent Renier. A few weeks before the election he was was out spending her 45 to 1, and while she started to close that gap a little in the week before the election, it wasn't enough. I don't think it would take a large sum of money if we had a strong candidate. This has been a district the GOP has taken for granted in the past, but this year they had to put it on their last push list.

I have heard you, Dr. Dean, say that it is a sign of respect to ask for the electorate's vote, well, ask for our vote. Our district isn't as conservative as Walberg is and we want a strong Democratic candidate to vote for next election cycle. Please ask for our vote.

Thank you both for your hard work.

Now is our chance

Well, a couple of days have pasted since the election, the time for celebration is over. Now it's time to get to work. The Democrats in congress will have to fight an uphill battle for the next two years. They have to over come the distrust of public officials that has been brewing, partisan fighting that has taken place, and oh yeah, a President that will probably veto a good number of bills they pass.

Also a very important thing for The Democrats to remember when they start this new congress is that this election wasn't a huge win for them, but rather a big defeat for The Republicans. The Dems did not win by a landslide in the individual elections, most were very close. There was a large amount of the electorate that did not vote for us, but simply voted against them. When The Dems take over, they have to prove themselves, they have to show the people that it is ok to vote for a Democrat because he is a Democrat and not just because of what he is not. This is our chance to prove ourselves. We have to show that we are not going to go to the far left as The Republicans have warned, but instead we are going to try and make the government more in line with the American people.

If the Democrats truly want to have a Democrat win the White House in 2008, then they not only have to nominate the correct candidate, they have to prove that they know how to get things done. They have to put pressure on The President to figure out Iraq and get us out of there as soon as possible and without leaving the place a mess. They have to make strides to lower health care costs, they have to work to make the lives of every American better, not just the super rich.

I think right now most of the country wants what the Democrats have to offer. People want a better foreign policy, they want better and cheaper health care, they want an American economy that is more competitive globally; I don't think that is the problem. Right now however, The Democrats still have a bit of a P.R. Problem. They need to inform the public about what these issues really mean, not just what the right says they mean. Right now people still aren't sure what stem cell research is about. These people aren't stupid, far from it, it's just that nobody has ever told them what it really is; the only thing they hear are from the ultra right-wing talk show hosts spewing misinformation about it.

Right now The Democrats have a lot working against them, a lot of the States in the country are still red states. It is sometimes a stigma to be be a Democrat in certain areas. They have huge hurdles to over come in these areas, hurdles that have to be over come if they want to bring this country together and move forward. The next couple of years are going to be very important for the Democrats.

I know this is nothing new, but for some reason I still felt I had to write something on this subject.

How health care can help

I think would of the best ways to assure a Democrat winning The Presidency in 2008 is for the Democrats make some real progress on health care when they take control of congress after the election. If the Dems pass a bill reducing the cost of health care, or giving health care to any one (on Al Franken today, Howard Dean suggested giving health care to every one under 25) with little increase in taxes for most Americans in congress, it will be huge. Now of course The President can still veto the bill, even this would be great for Dems. If that happens they can campaign on the fact that the Dems tried to make the health care situation better for America and the Republican President vetoed it. I really think if the Democrats really want to make it into office in 2008 they need to make a big push on fixing health care in the US.

Beyond the All district strategy

This entry is building on ideas put forth in my Beyond the All State Strategy: The All District Strategy which you can check out here.

I think it is important for the Democrats to win as many seats as they can in congress, but I also think it is important what seats they win. The Democrats not only need to focus on seats they think they have the best chances of winning, but also the seats that pose the most threat to the Democrats. Meaning they need to focus on winning the seats where the Republican candidate will actively work against them if elected over the Democrat. There are some candidates that are so against certain issues they will work against letting them pass.

Let's take Tim Walberg, the Republican candidate in my district. He is ahead in the polls and is heavily out spending his opponent Sharon Renier. Walberg is an uber right-winger. He is against abortion, anti gay marriage, for private school vouchers (meaning that money would be taken away from public schools and given to people who choose to go to private schools), anti stem-cell research (not just federal funding of stem-cell research, all stem-cell research), anti-gun control, and I'm sure anti a lot of other things that make a lot of sense. This guy isn't just anti any of those things, he is VERY AGAINST those things. He is for school vouchers because his children were home schooled (so therefore he wants to take money away from public schools). Do you really think this guy would work with Democrats?

A moderate Republican getting elected is much better than a candidate that is far right. A district like mine it seems would be very important to win. The representative we have now is John Schwarz, a moderate Republican, but he got replaced on the ballet by Walberg. So if the Democrats lose this seat they will be replacing a moderate with a uber right-winger, a move in wrong direction.

Politics in the country has moved way to far left, and The Democrats need to focus on winning seats that will help at least move the country more to the center if not tip the scales a little the opposite way. Letting super-righties win will not help.

Walberg hasn't won yet, so I am still very hopeful!

Democrat's to raise Federal minimum wage, trys to catch up to Michigan's

I know this isn't new news, but I found an article that says that one of the first things a Democratic congress would do is raise the minimum wage. That isn't the interesting part, the interesting part is what they would raise it to, $7.25 an hour. I know what you are saying, that's a pretty good, $2.10 more an hour. But the interesting thing is that Michigan has already passed a bill that raises our minimum wage over a two year period to $7.40, fifteen cents more than the proposed fedreal minimum wage. The first leg of the minimum wage has already gone into effect, making the minimum wage $6.95 at the time of this writing. This time, good for Michigan.

Federal:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15390733/
Michigan:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE7DB1530F93AA15750C0A9609C8B63

Remember Net Neutrality?

Remember Net Neutrality? Well it those who are opposed to it (AT&T and the Bells, and Comcast, and the other cablies) may have a harder fight when (I guess I should say if too, but really...) The Democrats take both houses of congress.

Also the Dems need to pass some laws stating if these companies are going to have services (High Speed Internet, HD television, etc) in some ares they have to have them in all areas. Right now smaller towns (like where I live) don't get the same service that towns just a few miles away.

There also needs to be laws getting rid of the monopolies these companies have over service. When I complain to Comcast right now they know I can't go anywhere else. They are the only game in town for true high speed Internet, they know we can not get AT&T's video service over the phone lines like bigger cities can. So when I complain, even to supervisors I get an assurance that my problem will be handled, but it never is. I have been told on two occasions that we would be getting free pay-per-view coupons in the mail since our digital cable isn't what we signed up for (it isn't even digital; it is the same channels, the same picture quality the same everything only now we have a box that sits there and does nothing), and they said that the service would work as advertised with in two weeks. The service still has yet to work, and we have never gotten our coupons. We have called many many times, and emailed about these issues almost as many times and still nothing has been done. We have called the 1-800 numbers, talked to the local representatives, talked to district representatives and representatives from the main office about the issue. It has been over two months and it still does not work as we have be told it would. They keep telling us that we are still in our free trial period so we shouldn't worry about not having the service they told us we would have. They also told us that the time that we do not have the service still counts toward the free trial period even though we have nothing to try. They say the service will start anytime now. I'll still waiting.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061023/ap_on_go_co/internet_equality;_ylt=AhrM2DWSJve5jcuzTskqlTbMWM0F;_ylu=X3oDMTA3cjE0b2MwBHNlYwM3Mzg-

When the Democrats take control of Congress

When the Democrats take control of Congress, they must start to lay the way for a Democratic President in 2008. So how do they do that?

One of the most important things they must do is to make the Administration come up with an acceptable plan to get us out of Iraq. I don't what to go into detail about this, it just must be done.

The most important thing that must be done domestically is they need to work to lower health care costs and lay the ground work for some sort of universal health care. Why is this issue so important? If health care costs are lowered it will help to get the ball rolling on fixing many more issues. It will help American manufacturers be more competitive in a global marketplace. It will help many many employers to lower their costs, make a profit, and stay in business. This would largely help the American economy which needs all the help it can get right now. This would also greatly help education. By lowering health care costs, you are effectively giving more money to schools. Which again would help the economy by providing more qualified workers and giving schools more money to spend on other things. Once the health care problem is addressed then I think we can really start to work on some of the other issues this country is facing.

If the Democrats work and work hard on these issues and stay out for trouble this will help to get a Democrat into the White House next election.

Beyond the 50 State Strategy: All District Strategy

I think it is great the the Democrats finally are going to take on a 50 state strategy, but what I really wish they would take on is an all district strategy. For some reason a lot of rural areas and smaller towns tend to be Republican, and it seems like the Democrats are just fine with that.

Let's take my congressional district. The two candidates on the ballot for the House are: ultra right-winger Tim Walberg, a former (and very horrible) Congressmen at the state level, and Sharon Renier, a paralegal and organic farmer. I haven't seen a single sign anywhere in the district with Sharon's name on it. Nobody has come to the door saying anything about her. On the other hand there are signs all over about Walberg (with his backwards campaign slogan “Commonsense Conservative” on them). Someone has also came to our front door handing out literature on him. Oh yeah, there is a TV commercial for him too. It's not that Tim Walberg is the favorite here, his campaign is just out spending the Democrats' by an insane margin, 45 to 1. In a recent article Sharon's campaign states that they will be doing all of these things in the weeks heading up to the election, but every poll right now has Walberg ahead by a comfortable margin.

It is not a good thing that Joe Schwarz, a moderate Republican (he believes in stem cell research and lower health care costs) who is our district's representative, got voted off the ballet in the primary for this uber right-winger Walberg (against stem cell research, very pro-life, anti-gay rights, I could go on and on).

Come on Democrats, you can not just concede these areas. A lot of times these are the areas that need help the most.