One of the best and most surprising effects of the election of Barack Obama has been an igniting in me to remain active in local and national politics. There is no excuse for apathy and passivity at this point. I will no longer sit idly by while a government who is accountable to its citizenry acts in opposition to the will of the people. I will learn/teach myself, with brute force if necessary, how to be a truly participatory citizen in a participatory democracy. I'm thankful that we have the potential to hold this new administration to the standard set by the campaign, and I will avail myself of every opportunity to do so. Below is my letter to our current (D) senator. I look forward to writing many more, to Bingaman and to Senator-Elect Udall. The letter isn't very elegant, I wrote it in a hurry this morning before work because I wanted to get it out before I left. I also plan to call his senate office to give an abbreviated statement that reflects the same sentiment.
Dear Senator Bingaman,
We the people of the state of NM have made our preferences known at the ballot box. We do not want a generic idea of change, we want the specific changes outlined in President-Elect Obama's policies and agenda.
To this end, while I appreciate the importance of allowing CT Senator Lieberman to remain in the Democratic caucus if he so chooses, I find it unacceptable that he would be rewarded with retaining his committee chairmanship for behavior, statements, and actions that appear to be, at the very least, out of line with mainstream democrats.
Please vote to reassign Senator Lieberman to less critical committees, e.g. Small Business and Entrepeneurship.
It is unconscionable that such a vocal opponent of President-Elect Obama's candidacy would be empowered by Senate Democrats to block Obama's agenda in the Senate.
