Dear Democratic Congress, Don't Screw This Up

Dear Democratic Congress,

Once all the meet-and-greet socials and orientations, the lottery for office space, the class-officer elections, and the oath taking in January have concluded, and the newbies are snugly installed in their congressional cubicles staring at the walls and breathlessly reminding themselves, "Wow! I'm really in Congress!" it's time to get down to business. And we out here in reality hope it's not another round of monkey business. We've had enough of that in the last six years to keep us chin-deep in monkeys for the rest of our lives.

We know we've only given you two short years to locate any crevass, no matter how small, through which to lead us to safety from Iraq and a hard place where John and Jane Q. Public have been dwelling, wedged in rigor-mortis-like stiffness for the past six years, unable to draw a full breath. It would be nice to be able to breathe deeply again. In fact, it's becoming direly mandatory.

Election pundits exhausted their jaws all summer and fall whispering, whistling, whispering, saying, saying some more, and finally shouting from the rooftops that the November election result was all about Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. And those pundits were right, wrong, and wrong again. It is about Iraq. And it's not about Iraq. It's more about truthfulness versus truthiness and whether or not John and Jane Q. Public want their world shaped entirely by the monkey-loving military-industrial complex. For the record, we don't. And no one can hold it against us that we thought for a while that we did because we weren't ever told the truth about anything. And as this is a vast nation, it took about three years for the truth to make the rounds the old-fashioned way. Once it did, we knew we didn't. That's America for you.

So, Democratic Congress, where does that leave us and you? Well, it leaves us waiting for leadership. And it leaves you needing to supply us with some. The real and honest kind. The kind we haven't seen . . . well, maybe ever. But America is thirsty for it--as thirsty for it as a lost and hallucinating desert nomad drinking the sand. We've only been able to find sand and we are sick of it. It doesn't get the job done. We want out of the quagmire of Iraq, true. But we also want fresh water and clean air and healthcare and to be treated fairly by corporate America. We want our budget balanced and an end to no-bid contracts and earmarks and lobbyists and $50 toilet seats. We want grandma to get her social security check because it's all she has to live on. And we want her doctor to get his Medicare raise so he doesn't drop her like a stone. We want a fair-trade balance and we want our tax dollars to be spent on honorable endeavors. Here, mostly.

Basically, Dem Congress, we know we are asking a lot out of you in two short years. We are asking you to right all the wrongs that have been foisted upon the Public family in the last six years. We know it's a big job, and it's probably an unfair job at this point in the game. But it is the most important job. The most important job ever. It is far and away more important than politicizing the year 2008. And if you get this right, that particular year will largely take care of itself.

So, Dear Democratic Congress, when 2007 evolves into a political game of Red Rover, as it will, play nice with each other and be very careful who you call over, who you let through the lines and who you don't. Then be honest with us about your choices. This may be your one shot at taking the Red Rover title. So, on behalf of John and Jane Q. Publics everywhere in America, we respectfully request, for god's sake don't screw this up!!