A Time for Change

An Open Letter to Democrats:

Congratulations, my friends. The candidate you selected to represent your ideas to the American electorate has won. He won with a simple message... that it is time for change.

Savor the victory. Allow yourself a little time to gloat; but get over it, and do so fairly quickly. As of this writing (approx 2:30 am Eastern Time), you have 54 seats in the Senate, and cannot reach a 60 vote super majority without the help of Leiberman and Sanders. You've made gains in the House, but you've probably lost KS-2 (Boyda: D-Topeka), and perhaps others... I'm not going to search state by state to double check right now. I know it's just one seat in a heavily Republican seat, lost to a popular state Treasurer when your fairly popular Democratic Governor wasn't on the ticket to boost turnout for the incumbent. But it is there.

Soon - maybe not tomorrow; but soon - the real work to enact Obama's Change begins. Moreover, it must begin on a local level as well as the national stage. And quite frankly, it means doing many of the same things that another Democratic President asked us to do: work together to build better communinities, volunteer; make ourselves better.

And encourage our lawmakers - Democrat AND Republican - to do the same. Build coalitions; use diplomacy; prioritize, and use those priorities to reduce wasteful spending. Reinvest in our elementary and high schools; find effective ways of keeping kids involved in school and learning, so we can compete in the Science and Mathematics fields. And yes, raise taxes when there is no more fat to cut.

And maybe; just maybe, we'll be able to turn 4 years into 8.