Letter-a-day campaign: Why I Am a Democrat

While we're having our very own Reichstag moment over on the Senate floor, I thought today would be a good time to reaffirm my commitment to the ideals of democracy - you know, freedom, justice, liberty for all, stuff like that. And as I pondered, I saw that those ideals dovetailed neatly with another list I've been compiling for some time for use in a local letter-writing campaign. It's called Why I Am A Democrat, and I reproduce the list below. It's a pastiche of my own ideas, emails I've solicited from friends, diaries posted here, notes from who knows where. No doubt you'll recognize a phrase or two....

It's the opening salvo in a "Letter A Day from Lincoln County" (Maine) campaign. We want one person in the county to post one letter on one topic every single day - to a weekly paper, a regional paper, a national TV station, an elected official, a wavering Republican relative. We want to be proactive, focus on the positive whenever we can, without ceding an inch of underlying outrage, of course.

And the thought crossed my mind, even better to do this on a national level. Wouldn't it be nice if we had party leadership on this?

(Sigh.) But back in Lincoln County, we have our local basics in place: why letters are important, how to write them, contact info, where to go for talking points on each issue, etc. Now we're figuring out how to get the campaign rolling.

• Have each town chair call 3 people and ask them personally to write a letter?
  
• Send teaching teams into retirement communities - we have a lot here - which are stuffed with pissed-off, newly activated, literate dems with time on their hands?
  
• Write piles of short, simple notes and hand them out to people who claim they could never write a letter of their own?
  
• Produce standardized postcards and have them ready at county meetings for mass mailings?
  

As I say, it's a work in progress.

Meanwhile, here's my newly posted list of talking points on the issue at hand. Use as you see fit and feedback welcome.

I am a Democrat because...

• I love my country. I cherish the Constitution and the freedoms enshrined within it.
  
• I care about jobs and the economy as a whole, not just the people at the top.
  
• I know that freedom isn't free. I am willing to pay my fair share of taxes.
  
• I support a strong national defense.
  
• I support the troops. I stand in awe and gratitude that people put their lives on the line for my country. I want to equip them properly, send the right numbers to do the job, bring them home on time, take care of the wounded, their families, our veterans - and never send them into harm's way unless it is necessary.
  
• I know that commerce and capitalism are the engine of American prosperity. I support small business, fair trade, and adequate oversight to protect workers and consumers from the abuses of power.
  
• I believe in free enterprise, not corporate welfare.
  
• I believe in the essential decency of all people. I know that if I want to be free to live my life to its fullest, I must want and expect that same freedom for every other person.
  
• I know that no one man or group is good enough to hold uncontrolled power over the rest of us.
  
• I support science over ideology and personal faith over public religion.
  
• I support investment in our common wealth, like local fire and police departments, libraries, public education, public health, public spaces and national parks.
  
• I know that the more we invest in schools, the more we'll save on prisons.
  
• I want my country to be a land of opportunity.
  
• I believe in enterprise and merit, not entitlement and privilege.
  
• I believe in investing in the next generation, not piling debt upon them.
  
• I believe that laws should be drafted in the interests of all citizens, not just for corporations willing to pay the most money.
  
• I believe that nothing justifies torture.
  
• I believe that when a government goes to war, it should tell the truth about it to its citizens.
  
• I believe that power without principle is not worth having.
  

Why are you a Democrat?