Dear Democrats and Republicans . . . You Called?

Reverend Sharon Dittmar
First Unitarian Church
536 Linton Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45219
513. 281.1564
November 14, 2004

Dear Democrats and Republicans,

You called? Actually, you or someone you hired called and called and called. You called so often I felt like the burned over territory after a great revival. President Bush phoned first in October, asking me to cast an absentee Republican ballot. General Wesley Clark called asking me to watch a true swift boat documentary. Miss Laura Bush phoned me too, as did multiple Democratic Ohio mayors, who all seemed to believe I was African American. I was often encouraged to "think about our people."

You called from Ohio, Virginia, Los Angeles and Oregon. You called so often, and never asked me what I had to say, so here is my open letter to you. Please excuse me for not including third parties, but you, third parties, never called.

Dear Democrats and Republicans, the election results are in. President Bush was elected for the first time, and Senator Kerry lost by over 3 million votes. The Republican Party gained seats in the House and Senate. The Republicans are considering political domination and the Democrats are wondering if they will wake from a nightmare that never ends, but you already know that. What you don't know is that I think you both have work to do, no one has a mandate, and Americans are afraid, very afraid.

Dear Democrats,

I have a Democrat friend who walks around his apartment now muttering, "Americans are so stupid." If you ask, "Why did the Republicans do so well?" he exclaims, "Because Americans are so stupid!" What I think he also means is that Republicans are particularly stupid.

He sent me a list of the "smartest" American states based on per-pupil expenditure, high school graduation rates, reading and math proficiency tests, and pupilteacher ratios. The "smartest" state is Massachusetts, followed by CT, VT, NJ, WI, NY, MN - how low do we have to go to reach a "red" state? The bottom states are LA, MI, AZ, NV, and NM - red states. You get his picture? I think this has more to do with values and economic resources and less to do with stupidity. Please stop referring to Republicans as "stupid." It won't change anything and earns you more enemies than friends.

Oh, Dear Democrats, the New Deal with all its social, job, and education programs, and safety nets, is over. More concerning for your adherents, so is the New Deal coalition of unionists - whether teachers or truck drivers, the city and rural poor, the working class, minorities, intellectuals. There has been general erosion over the last seventy years, but if you have any doubts, the New Deal Party is over.

It was a remarkable moment for America and I watch its departure with deep regret, but the truth is, it was never going to last, beginning with something the Republicans have had the courage to discuss - social security is broken. As it stands, my generation will never see the money we put in to care for the elderly, shared with us in return. No small concern. The New Deal is over in program, solvency, and coalition. Time for a next "deal" in program, coalition, and vision.

Speaking of vision, my friend Eran Kaplan, Asst. Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Cincinnati thinks you have lost your vision. He is dismayed by the division of the party into Republican defined cultural issues (gay rights, abortion) and its subsequent neglect of economic issues. You might be concerned to know that he refers to you as "Republican Light" - sort of all economic chat and no real advocacy or change.

He recently wrote to me "Ultimately, isn't that the reason that so many working class Americans can not relate to the liberal cause - because they view it as some elitist initiative aimed to appease the mind of urbanites?" In case you doubt my friend Eran, consider what Walter Mondale, a statesman of your party had to say this past week "We really need to work on the question of what we are for. Unless we have a vision and the arguments to match, I don't think we're going to truly connect with the American people."¹

In the last election we learned that securing the votes in urban areas, and relying on the African American population to vote Democrat, which they still do, would not win a Presidential election. What about those suburban and rural areas. How come you don't capture these voters? Is it language, policy, charisma, mission? If you want to be viable, figure it out.

Jesse Jackson, another statesman of your party said, "We must be a 50-state national party. We must take on the South, reach more working poor people."² Or as Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona said "You can't write off everything from Atlanta to California. You've got to find some beachheads there."3

Dear Democrats, you have been the party of civil rights, the working man and woman who will never have a second or first home or car or large retirement package (and this is still the majority of Americans). You have been the party with the courage to speak of social safety nets, which every society needs in order to thrive. You have been the party of public education advocacy knowing this can be a great equalizer when other resources are not equal.

Democrats, search your roots and take back your power. The current stock market and economy is heady, seductive stuff. But you know it doesn't last, because you had the vision, generosity, and discipline to pull this country out of the worst depression it has every seen, and yes, that took fiscal responsibility as well as ingenuity.

You were great not because you won public office, or because FDR needed a long-term lease on the White House, but because you economically uplifted the people of this country together. Uplift again, my friends with the next deal. Word to the wise, Democrats, you have allowed yourself to be split and distracted by conservative cultural wars, and you have bigger fish to fry. I agree with your stance on civil rights and privacy issues, equality for the GLBT community and guarantees of family planning. But, civil rights issues do not a proactive platform make.

I also have a different take on judicial appointments than most of you. I think that sometimes a few more people need to lose their rights and privileges before we can know what we really value as a society. Some pressure on this truth, via restrictions, can be a good thing in the long run. I understand that in the short run some will suffer because of this. It's terrible, and sometimes we have to see our neighbors suffer, or feel our own loss and pain, before we can see our truth.

Dear Democrats, "For the love of God and religion, please do not go out of your way to add God and religion to your repertoire." If you tokenize God into your current platform, a) everyone will know and think less of you, b) you will just be "Godly Republican Light." Do not go into that glob of glue because it is currently fashionable.More interesting information for you could be why there are so many more "new" religious evangelical Christians. Who were these people before they became evangelical, and what motivated them to change? What is motivating Americans towards something that feels traditional and safe? This need can probably be met with or without religion, and evangelical religion, as the history of America shows us, can be powerful (remember the Great Awakening, prohibition, and Jimmy Baker), but it is also just as often unsuccessful and exhausting (remember the Great Awakening, prohibition, and Jim Baker).

Dear Democrats, please stop panicking (and thank you for not blaming your candidate this time around). Mourn, ok, be sad, ok, confused, ok, take a break, ok. But this is not the end; it is the beginning and a striking opportunity in the long run. Please find the next deal and create an economic platform, don't get sucked into every cultural war, be proactive not reactive, redefine morals and values, reach out to the suburbs and rural areas, hold to civil rights, keep your eye on the Constitution and the deficit (hey, you could become the "fiscally responsible" party if you play your cards right), and pick your battles. It might be hard and painful for you, but it is more useful to be underestimated than overestimated.

Dear Republicans,

Do you know what Richard Nixon's classmates used to call him? "Iron Butt." No joke. Richard Nixon, although not very talented, had the ability and tenacity to sit in the library night after night so that he could do better than his peers. Congratulations Republicans, you are the party of Iron Butt. President Bush appeared sweaty and weak during the debates, our troops are entrenched in a war that lingers, our national deficit is growing like a weed, but you work until you win.

You are intelligent, organized, creative, disciplined, and motivated. So what if the Democrats think you are stupid? It's always better to be underestimated than overestimated. You mobilized voters in all states, cities, suburbs, and rural areas in greater numbers than the Democrats. You got out your vote. You also have your eyes on some real problems, like social security. Thank you for addressing this before the last President turns out the light on the program.

But dear Republicans, I have concerns for you, beginning with hubris - which my dictionary defines as "overweening pride or self-confidence." I am happy to hear that you want to look at social security, until I read that one option for your proposed plan is to take out a $2 trillion loan to pay current recipients who will be grand-fathered in if the plan changes and working folks no longer pay in to others. $2 trillion? Have you looked at the deficit lately? It is a sad day when I need to remind you that you are the party of prudent, fiscal reform.

Exactly how are regular folks, who have trouble, figuring out how to save as it is, supposed to budget and invest their pensions to insure fulfilling retirements? As my sister, an actuary, reminds me, where are all these investments to be put? The market, is after all, finite. You confidently unravel the New Deal at our peril.

American elders now have New Deal expectations of security and they live longer, and our next American elders will be Baby Boomers. There are a lot of them and they expect a lot. The rage and stagnation from an America with impoverished retirees would be profound. It could be 30 years from now, but the rage will still be profound, unless Karl Rove is still alive to market this as a problem caused by tax and spend liberals.

Dear Republicans, Americans are afraid, so very afraid after September 11. You have used this fear. My friend, Eran, likes to remind me that you won't stop because historically, conservatives regularly use cultural issues and fear to gain voters. I wonder, have you ever used a red alert for political gain?

We were afraid and you encouraged us to fear more, promising complete protection, which you cannot always deliver, which no government or military, no matter how powerful, can always deliver. Meanwhile, you made us weak because people look to you for complete protection, rather than learning new strategies, paying attention, and being realistic about risk. Columbia, Greece, Israel, France, England, Spain, have all had their decades of terrorism. This is life.

I know a Republican who recently said to me "In the last four years the world, particularly for Americans, has become a more dangerous place." I heard one postelection observer refer to the war in Iraq as the "dark horse." This chapter for America and Iraq has yet to unfold, and we are in Iraq without an exit strategy or plan to win the peace because of your vision. You put our troops in harms way. You put Iraqi and American civilians in harms way for a country with no weapons of mass destruction, no Osama bin Laden, and plenty of oil reserves.

You enabled fear to tread on civil rights and international agreements on the rights of prisoners of war. How long can we suspend the rights of prisoners at Guatanamo Bay? The cases are making their way through the courts now, and just last Tuesday I heard that an inmate won his case to be tried as a prisoner of war (which gives him greater rights than you have and all of us greater access to the accusations against him). Will the inmates at Guatanamo Bay become the illegally interred Japanese Americans of our generation?

Dear Republicans, you worked hard to woo evangelical Christians to support your candidates. You now have the unenviable job of pleasing them. They might want certain "moral" values, but not all Americans do, and more importantly, not all Republicans do.

What interests me about my Republican friend is that she is fiscally conservative (concerned about taxes and medical malpractice), but not socially conservative. Republicans are a combination of fiscally conservative, socially conservative, and both, but they are not a monolithic voting block. They can also be feisty, "keep big government out," which can translate into "keep big government out of my bedroom, my neighbor's bedroom, and every other darn bedroom, and don't tread on my rights, man." Recently my friend said to me "Sometimes I think the Republicans are mean-spirited." When people aren't so afraid they think better.

Dear Republicans, the cultural wars that you have fostered irritate me more than anything else. If you are lucky the Democrats will keep falling for them every time. They will be so distracted that they will never created a platform. Culture wars are a smoke screen away from governance issues and economic problems.

No one wins culture wars (remember prohibition - it was repealed). Cultural issues/moral values don't work or last in constitutional legislation because they don't belong there in a country that has separated church and state. They are scare tactic that mobilize your voting base, but they weaken the purpose of the Constitution and derail the relevant work of government. When did the Grand Old Party, the party of Lincoln, the party of fiscal reform, state's rights, tax cuts, and small government become the party of the Scarlet Letter?

As for moral values, if the Democrats are perceptive (a fact yet to be determined) they can redefine this word in a way that appeals to both Democrats and Republicans. Columnist Ellen Goodman recently wrote

There are a whole lot of folks who believe that starting a pre-emptive war on false premises is a moral issue. There are a whole lot who believe that giving tax cuts to the rich and a deficit to the grandkids is a matter of values. There are a whole lot who put our faith, secular and sacred, in the most religiously diverse country in the world . . . among the not-so-red voters are those who believe in legal protection for gay couples, who value a child with diabetes over a frozen embryo in a fertility clinic. They regard poverty as a moral issue and tolerance as an American value. They don't want their country racked by the fundamentalist religious wars we see across the world. And they need to hear the moral framework for these views.⁴

What would happen if they did?

Dear Republicans, that "mandate" of which you have so recently spoken, please be careful. 49% of Americans voted for a candidate other than yours in the Presidential election. I know it is tempting to crow when you win seats in both houses and the Presidency. Everyone likes to win. But mandate?

As a minister my colleagues and I need to receive 90% of the congregational vote, and even that majority is not always high enough in times of trouble. People can get mad and they can change their minds. Remember when Newt Gingrich closed the government? Remember the election after that event? Hubris my friends, hubris.

Dear Democrats and Republicans, my political friends, I wish both of you so very well. The future our country rests in your fragile, human, governing hands. May perspective and peace be with you always.

Sincerely,
Reverend Sharon Dittmar

1 Adam Nagourney, "Baffled by Loss, Democrats Seek Road Forward" in The New York Times, (November 7, 2004), 1.
2 Nagourney, 29.
3 Nagourney, 29.
4 Ellen Goodman, "Staring All Over Again" in The Cincinnati Post (November 9, 2004).

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