Letter to Democrats, Nov. 7, 2002

I think I know why the Democrats lost so many elections on Tuesday.

They lacked the courage to tell the truth.

I don't think the Bush administration is telling the truth to the American people, about a great many things. And very few Democratic candidates are speaking out about it, or challenging the President in any way. It takes courage to tell the truth, especially when the President has high popularity numbers, and the Democratic party as a whole seems very short on courage.

As a resident of Illinois, I've been very proud of Dick Durbin for speaking out on the floor of the U.S. Senate against the war on Iraq. There haven't been many like him, willing to speak out courageously against the President's mysterious obsession with taking out Saddam Hussein, and his pathetic wish to project all evil on this one convenient target.

I consider it pretty likely that the President's focus on war is a ruse. I think that has become more and more obvious as the nuclear weapons program in North Korea has come to light and been greeted with such a different reaction than mere rumors of a similar program in Iraq.

I think the real reasons for the President's obsession with war on Iraq have been hidden from the public, and I urge you in the strongest possible terms to root out the truth and challenge him on it.

I'll tell you some of the reasons I suspect:

1. To distract the American people from our very real, very disturbing, economic problems at home. Those problems are real, and they will be difficult to solve without genuine leadership.
2. To obscure the fact that this President isn't a genuine leader. It's easy to appear as a leader in time of war; all you have to do is give the order, and the Joint Chiefs do the rest. I think the President's kind of leadership is a sound byte. A genuine leader gives press conferences and engages in open debate, takes on his challengers in a free exchange of ideas. A genuine leader speaks in coherent sentences. A genuine leader calls for sacrifice on the part of the American people. This President tells Americans to go shopping. Since the attacks of September 11, I think there has been a crisis of meaning in this country. If it's possible to die in a fire ball on the job on a sunny Tuesday morning, then the job must hold enough meaning to have made life worth living. Meaning doesn't come from a mall. If one's life has little meaning, no number of purchases will supply it.
3. To put up a smoke-screen to hide the dishonest relationship between Vice President Cheney and Enron executives. It seemed to me that the timing was pretty striking; no sooner had we started to get a look at what was happening than the hullabaloo about Iraq started up. I'd be willing to bet good money that some day it will come out that Cheney was dishonest behind closed doors; where are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein when we really need them?
4. To silence debate. It's hard to continue debate in time of war without appearing unpatriotic. It sometimes seems as if we're heading into another McCarthy era, when everyone's afraid to say what they think. I mourn deeply the loss of Paul Wellstone, one of the very few who was willing to speak out.
5. To send the subtle message to the American people that yes, there will be enough oil in the world for some time to come, so they needn't think about their fuel consumption or worry about conservation or give up their SUVs.

One mighty sword for truth is long-term vision, which cleaves through sloppy, short-term reasoning like a knife through butter. Say what you want about President Clinton, I believe one of the reasons he remained so popular, even through the impeachment proceedings, was his ability to stir Americans with a positive vision of the future. The Bush administration - the administration that wants to drill in ANWAR - the administration that is ready to flout our allies and our friends in the Mideast to take out Saddam and thereby raise a whole new generation of American-hating peoples - obviously doesn't believe in long-term vision.

Let the Democratic party be the party of long-term vision. Let the Democratic party say, Where do we want to be 50 years, 100 years from now?

• Do we want to be relying on oil more than we do now, or less?
• Do we want to be breathing cleaner air, or breathing more pollution?
• Do we want to have sufficient drinkable water, or scarcity?
• Do we want our factories to be producing more toxins or fewer toxins?
• Do we want to see the effects of global warming in reverse, or do we want to see land disappearing beneath rising waters?
• Do we want to put our research dollars towards more deadlier ways of killing, or toward gentler ways of healing?
• Do we want to preserve more wilderness for future generations, or preserve less in order to satisfy short-term goals?
• Do we want college for our children to be more affordable or less affordable?

If we already know what we want our future to look like, then let's look at where we are on the path. Are we likely to get to our desired future going the way we're going, or do we need a sea change?

I'll give you another issue on which I'd like to see someone speak the truth: prescription drugs for seniors. I'd like to see some serious studies on what drugs seniors are taking and why. Is it possible that the prescription drug issue exposes the far more serious issue of health care reform?

How many doctors are prescribing drugs because they don't know what else to do? Or because they don't want to listen to what's happening in the patient's life? Or because managed care doesn't allow them time to listen? Or because medical schools don't teach them how to listen? Or because the real problem underlying the symptoms is depression or loneliness, for which the doctor has no real answers?

And I'll give you another one: A recent study showed that a huge number of Americans are obese. What does obesity mean about us as a people, about our culture, and about our medical system? I don't hear any leadership on this issue from anyone in either party.

I think it takes courage to examine why we do things and how we might do them differently. People are complex creatures, life is complex. It's not as simple as us versus them, as the "axis of evil" against "American freedom." Let the Democratic party lead the debate on real problems and finding real solutions that last.

Some reactions
"WOW!! Alyce, what a great letter—direct, substantiated, forceful. The best I've seen in a long time. When are you running for office?!! May I share it with my reps in DC?"

"Fantastic letter!!! Wow!! I agree with everything that you say."

"You are right on. It touched my heart. Please put me on your email list for your thoughts and feelings of politics, justice, compassion, environment etc."

"Write on, right on. Hey, how 'bout you run for President. You've got my vote."

"What a great letter you wrote, and it said so many of the things I have been feeling in a well thought out and heart felt way."