YES WE DID!

Our National nightmare of the last eight years may not yet be over, but we’re off to a great start!!!

Bush, Cheney, McCain, Palin and the Republicans who have ruled or sought to rule with their “national mandates”, and “political capital” have been soundly rebuked.

For the first time since the 1950’s, we no longer have a Bush or a Dole elected or re-elected to national office in the United States.

If Republicans learn anything from this election, they should recognize that the old Lee Atwater/Karl Rove campaign tactics they’ve used for decades aren’t being believed anymore by the majority of the American people.

People who have been so abused by the politics of “agree with us, or be branded as unpatriotic”, will no longer stand for the abuses of power, or the abuses of arrogance.

People who have been denied their right to voice their opinions or vote for their candidates of choice, have now seen that their votes DO COUNT when they SHOW UP TO VOTE. They don’t have to give in to the lies, the intimidation and the techniques used throughout our country’s entire history to deny the masses their right to vote or to demand a redress of grievances from their government.

In spite of the reports coming in from around the country of Republican attempts to prevent people from voting, by threatening to arrest them for parking tickets, or arrest them if they had “also previously voted in the Primary elections”; in spite of them removing thousands of legally registered voters from the “official voter databases” without justification; or keeping millions of voters in line for hours because of insufficient poll workers signing in voters and providing them ballots to cast their votes, or not having enough ballots or having insufficient voting machines at polling stations to count the votes cast; in spite of touch screen voting machines that flipped Democratic votes to Republican candidates; we have just witnessed that when the voters turn out in large enough numbers, the strength of their numbers can, will and did prevent the theft of this election. Voter awareness of the REAL ISSUES was a victory for the entire country.

For those electors/voters who did suffer through these indignities, they need to vote out their local politicians and elections officials who allowed this to occur, and replace them with people who will protect their rights to a fair and honest election.

On behalf of the leadership of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District, I thank all of you who have taken the time and made the effort to raise your own awareness of the issues and volunteered to work hard in putting a new, thoughtful and responsible leadership in charge of our country at a time when our country most urgently needs it.

God bless all of you for your efforts, and God bless a United States of America that works for ALL OF US.

Now, don’t just sit back on your laurels, with this new victory, and expect things will just happen all on their own. The people to people networking that you have become part of, to move politicians and create change by being part of the change you want to see, is just the beginning of the personal empowerment that you have all seen and experienced first hand. Now use those networking and community organizing skills to create the necessary changes in the policies of our government and of our business leaders to unite this country and build it up, instead of allowing them to tear it apart and bankrupt it.

We have the opportunity now, to take this country in a new direction. We don’t need the approvals of those who have long ignored commonsense policies, or diplomatic negotiations, or the pleas of the “invisible majority”; nor should we just hope for the chance that they might someday “come around”.

They aren’t in charge anymore. We have new leadership. It is our time. We must not fail. And with the continued support and involvement of all those who supported President-elect Obama’s candidacy, by shaping, promoting and enacting his new policies, we will not fail.

Now let us all get to the real work in rebuilding our country.