...I know I have not commented on the results of this past Tuesday's elections. (See previous blogs "Blogger working dodgy" and "Blogger is toast.") Suffice it to say though, this past week has been one of the best ever, for the following reasons

• My work is going well and I seem to be getting the hang of things
• I had a nice restful past weekend, and I had a weekend to look forward to with my Mom visiting
• Keith ended things well with his old job, and began his new job

But most of all, I was riding high when I saw the Democrats took the House and unbelievably, the Senate. My excitement is slightly dimmed through to hear Republicans begin to deride this new Congress before they even take their oaths.

Here's what I am way too diplomatic to point out (Republicans, read on at your OWN peril--I warned you):

• To those worried about "tax and spend" Democrats: Have the last six years of solely Republican controlled government been an exercise in fiscal constraint? We had a surplus when it began, now it is gone. Who decided that we should enter a war at a cost of 1.8 BILLION dollars a week while our schools are underfunded and Americans in record numbers are barely able to make ends meet? (Americans like myself and my husband and nearly every other twenty-something I know. Not homeless bums.) Americans who are uninsured (including large numbers of children) because their jobs and their parent's jobs don't provide health care or they can't afford the premiums? Who set those priorities? Sure wasn't as hell the Democrats. Have you compared your tax bills during Democrat administrations and Republican administrations? Do you really find a significant difference? I'd gladly pay more in taxes (yes gladly) if I could be assured that my roads aren't falling apart, I have guaranteed health care that I can afford between jobs, and that my kids can go to college if they prove their intellectual worth, providing I can live with (maybe not lavishly) on what's left over. Have you stopped to compare your quality of life (be honest) during the Clinton years versus the Reagan years or now?

• To those worried about "liberal Democrats": What did gays ever do to you? When Massachusetts decided that all citizens, regardless of sexual orientation, could marry--the skies did not rain fireballs like all social conservatives said they would. God has not sent a plague of locusts here. In nature, there is documented and indisputed evidence of mammals, reptiles, and even fish attempting to mate with the same sex. Did you choose to be heterosexual? Of course not. Then why, oh why, do you persist in caveman-like thinking (and its always a heterosexual male who babbles derogatory remarks or cracks jokes about gays) and believe that gays choose to be gay? Given the attitudes of society today and the constant scrunity that homosexuals are under--why would any rational being choose to be gay? The American Psychological Association has that figured out already. What's your scientifically based evidence? I'm waiting. That being all said...everyone deserves the same rights in this great society where tyranny of one race, ethnicity or religion is not permitted. Some of us choose to demonstrate a true meaning of what is to be Christian--not to judge others and to be kind and assume the best of each other understanding that the greatest commandment of all is to forgive and love one another. To evangelicals, not all of us share your beliefs. Do what you want in your own homes, I'll do/be/befriend who I want providing as I am not hurting other citizens. If I go to hell that's my problem, on my conscious. I firmly believe though that God will recognize my humanity, my empathy, and my good-heartedness when my time comes. You worry about you--there's plenty there for you to work on. Trust me.

This is what I take away from the Bible. Jesus spent a lot of time with tax collectors and many other undesirables of society. He wanted His actions to show what the Bible talks about, not what so many self-proclaimed "Christians" today talk about but never demonstrate. He also said that it was easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle, rather than a rich man enter the Kingdom of Heaven, his life was led humbly, without possessions, and without prestige...this sort of fits in with my next point...

• To all business owners worried about a possible minimum wage increase: Pay your employees. They work hard and deserve a living wage. What? You say your employees don't work hard? Then why are they your employees? In this country, we deride and look down on individuals who collect from the government. We expect that they should work. Have you ever tried to live on $5.15 an hour at 40 hours a week? Hmm? Thought not. If you can't stay in business and pay your employees fairly, well, that's capitalism. Someone can probably do it better than you. So I guess you should find a way. After all, you've had since 1996, when the last increase was approved.
  

You business executives making the obscenely high salaries whilst your stocks are tanking, your investors are losing money, and your employees are being laid on en masse. You honestly think you deserve it or work any harder than the janitor cleaning your executive bathroom? Maybe you are better educated or had more advantages, but that's not the American way. The American way rewards hard work with a good living wage. Too many Americans aren't getting this, in fact, I would ante that most Americans aren't.

• Don't get me started on the Iraq War. People my age and even younger are coming home in body bags or their lives forever altered. Families broken, limbs lost, dreams shattered. Depression, suicide, domestic abuse, and post traumatic stress syndrome. All the while, the Bush Administration and his soon to be extinct Republican Congress proposed to reduce funding to VA hospitals. This is so despicable it makes my skin crawl. I guess its more important that Republicans' buddies (the aforementioned business execs making millions of dollars and properly paying their hardworking employees) get millions of dollars more in tax cuts. For a very brief moment, I'll humor war supporters and say maybe the war was warranted. I certainly don't think that Saddam Hussein is innocent. But then why lie? If it was in our national interest to be there, there is no need to lie. If this is a humanitarian mission, say it. And if it is a humanitarian mission--what about the Ivory Coast, Darfur, and Rwanda? There are dictators and war lords killing people there just as Saddam murdered Shiites and Kurds. I see one key difference--natural resources. Guess what Iraq has which the others don't. Oil? *ding, ding, ding, ding ding*

I could go on and on...but I'll cut to the chase and state...

Why the Republicans lost and why voters went Democratic:

• You can fool people some of the time, but not all the time.
• If you profess to be the party of morals and family values don't lie, choke your mistress, better yet--don't cheat on your wife, don't chase teenagers for sex. Got that?
  
• You can talk the talk, but people know whether or not their quality of life is improved or worse. Even if the opposite party can't come up with a cohesive message, citizens sure as hell aren't going to continue to vote for people when their quality of life is reduced. What people affectively said this time: "Anyone's better than who's in office now."
  
• A true patriot recognizes the values of honest hard work and reward. Republicans had the opportunity to raise the minimum wage, just prior to the elections. They proposed an ridiculously modest increase thrown in with some pork spending for their districts. Tax and spend Democrats indeed, eh?
  
• A good citizen recognizes that perhaps the best support of soldiers is to remember them, their families, and not treat them like chess pieces on some global game board. A patriot remembers and appreciates the sacrifices those families and soldiers make, it rewards them with guaranteed health care and tuition funding upon their return to secure their lives in time of peace. Widows and children should also be guaranteed those things without being spoon-fed some bullshit about how "socialist" that is while Republicans self-proclaim their patriotism.
  
• Good politicians give tax cuts to business with the solid understanding that they only improve the lives of Americans if they are passed back to workers, who spend the extra money, which funds business at companies, which again allows them to feed the money back into the firm and its employees. When the money goes to a CEO who spends it on a 4 million Ferrari (an actual recent news story) this cycle doesn't happen and it doesn't contribute to the general prosperity of the state. If this doesn't happen, those businesses shouldn't get repeated breaks. Without infastructure and our educational system there can be no business and no educated workers. Business must fund this religiously.
  
• Governments admit to their miscalculations and make adjustments and changes to your strategy. Set an example. We're all human.
  
• Doesn't resort to name calling, stating that anyone who disagrees with them is unpatriotic or supporting terrorism. As Voltaire, great author of the French enlightenment that created many of the principals our founders held dear, once said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." That's what this country is all about--health dissention and checks on tyranny.

To Democrats:

• Don't blow this. Come up with an agenda and a strategy. This nation is counting on you. And as tempting as it is, don't go out for petty revenge. I believe as you do that Clinton's fooling around with an intern isn't nearly as bad as sending thousands of Americans to die about a war you lied and misled the general public about. But, I want you (as do many others) want you to work on our schools, the minimum wage, and coming up with a guideline to get us out of the Vietnam II the Republicans have created in the Middle East. Moreover, Cheney as President could never be an improvement.

To Voters:

• Thanks for coming out. Did you know that higher levels of turnout favor Democratic outcomes? That's why Republicans spend election days praying for rain...but I digress. I'm a little upset with you actually. Where were many of you years ago? Why does it take several sex scandals to bring out voter outrage and increase turnout? And why did so many of you vote for Bush in 2004? I can only figure out that you thought consistency was better during wartime. Please continue to vote no matter what your allegiance. Its important to our democracy and gives much needed weight to the decisions our politicians make each and every day.

If you made it to the end of this manifesto, congratulations. If you are a Republican you doubtlessly want to tell me that I'm influenced by a liberal media or that I'm young and don't know what I'm talking about. I do know though what's best for me, and I know that the politics and policies espoused by "liberals" (and since when did "liberal" become a dirty word I ask) best matches my core values of being concerned about the lot of Americans, not the few with influence and power. That's a quality that nearly all Americans sorely lack--no sense of community responsibility. But my soul won't honestly won't permit me to feel any differently.