Dear Diane and fellow Congressional Democrats,

As a Californian, I was not happy to see you returning to business as usual under a Democratic president and Congress, a la the first Clinton years.  In case you mis-read the 2008 election, and for that matter the Congressional election of 2006, we the forgotten people of this country are taking our power back.  If you think Democrats were returned to office because the citizenry approves of the way you have handled your authority in the past, you are profoundly mistaken.  We wanted CHANGE, and Obama understands this.  It is not some cosmetic change, or a change in the party in power, but real change, which means that for the first time in my memory policy will be made transparently, not by lobbyists who you carry water for, and with the primary objective of what is best for the country--not what is best for you politically, which in the past has meant, what is best for your corporate or special interest benefactors.  Those days are over, and if you don't get it, and rather return to your habits of obstructing good public policy unless you can insert your backer's corporate agenda into it, or hold Obama's policies hostage to your personal political interests, you will find yourselves in the primary fights of your political lives. 

We, the previously disempowered citizenry, have found our champion, and have created a mass movement that is capable of raising the funds necessary to best the best-heeled of you who have no one but your corporate sponsors behind you.  Look what we were able to do to the Clinton machine that seemingly had the nomination locked up due to the largesse of her huge stable of corporate/special interest backers.  The power of the organized community was stronger than the power of their purse-strings.  This can and will happen to you, too, if you don't move towards the new American politics that Obama is leading us to.

Naturally, no one--not even Obama--expects you to be rubber stamps.  You can and should play a constructive role.  But your flexing of power for power's sake, in a way that undermines the President-elect, is ill-advised.  Your power, believe it or not, comes from us, the populace that voted for you. Now that we have tasted victory, and seen what community organizing can really do, you can no longer count on our support simply because you are an incumbant Democrat.  If you continue acting out of the tired old paradigm that spawned you, you can expect to find yourself opposed in the primaries by true change agents that are funded and fueled by Obama's army. 

This first Congressional session will tell us whether you are a political dinosaur heading for extinction, or whether you are politically nimble and astute enough to go softly into this new paradigm, where you will work cooperatively and transparently as a team player for the public good.  If so, we will take care of you and send you back to Washington for another term.  If not, there are plenty of young and qualilfied candidates that we would love to replace you with.  It's your choice. 

Yes, Americans are fed up with the high price of gas. But to think drilling for more oil in the US will have any effect on the price of gas is utter ignorance.

Oil is a worldwide commodity.  It's price is the same whether it is drilled in Alaska or Saudi Arabia.  The price is based on supply and demand.  American oil will be sold at the world price. Period. The fact that it is drilled in the US will not lower the cost to consumers. 

 In 10 years, the time it takes for new oil wells to start producing, the world demand will have increased grossly more than there is oil in the ground (or offshore) to supply it.  By 2025 the US Department of Energy predicts world demand will have increased by 50%.  That means the price will increase by 50% as well, unless that much more oil is produced worldwide.

No matter who is analyzing the potential of additional domestic drilling, there is no one that makes the claim that the amount of oil beneath our soil, or off our shores, is of sufficient quantity to meet the increased oil appetite of the developing world, considering China and India's huge and growing demand.  Our own domestic consumption of oil continues to grow as well, and will continue to do so.

The only way to lower our energy costs is to get off oil, and develop home-grown alternatives. Anyone who claims otherwise is not only pandering for votes, but is seriously steering us towards an energy policy that only benefits Big Oil and the citizens of Alaska who get oil royalties.  The rest of us will pay higher and higher prices to fill up our cars and to heat our homes. This is not an American solution to a truly crushing economic problem of the high cost of oil. And it's a shame that the press or Obama have not stepped up to the plate to expose this shameful distortion of truth. 

As disappointing as the Texas and Ohio results were, there are lessons to be learned. Those of us who have worked hard for the Obama campaign were in a bubble of optimism that was intoxicating.  And it was easy to think that everyone else saw the candidate as we did. The wrong-again polls buoyed our hopes. Yet, we were mistaken. To know him is to love him, but too many voters didn't yet know him, and were afraid to go with an unknown quantity, particularly when economic times are this scary.

When I called Ohio voters I found, much to my astonishment, that they knew almost nothing about Obama, yet had made their minds up for Hillary. For the first time in my phone canvassing experience, people actually hung up on me once I said who I was working for.  Some of the most favorable conversations I had were with Republicans, so I knew we were in trouble. Given the average voter's lack of real knowledge and familiarity with Barack, they were easy targets for Clinton's negative campaigning.

But something can be done.  It's easy.  And inexpensive.  And there's time..

The average American voter, unlike you and me, does not watch the news channels, devour political blogs, read newspapers or news magazines, or view Obama speeches on youtube. If they did they would know that he is no lightweight.

They do pick up their mail. And instead of getting one more color glossy political mailing, if they got an Obama DVD (think Netflix) that featured his stump speech, his video bio, his talk on faith in politics, maybe one of Michelles speeches, his address to the foreign affairs council, etc. There could be a menu for all the issues that appear on his website, with video clips for each topic.  Each clip could show the depth of his thinking on the range of issues facing the country.

There should also be a legislative section where his fellow senators can attest to his substantial legislative accomplishments, as well as about all the bills he has worked on as a Senator.  (Far more, by the way, than Hillary in any given year).  He has authored and co-sponsored way more significant legislation than Hillary has, yet he seems to be tarnished with the mis-conception that he is too inexperienced, too unproven, too unaccomplished to be president. Seeing is believing. And popping in a DVD at one's leisure will get Obama into every voter's home, where they can (OMG!) see for themselves who he is and what he stands for.

There could be a section for music videos as well. There are so many inspirational ones we all have been viewing on youtube. These can really get out now to those who are not already singing in our choir.

There could also be a menu of Celebrity Endorsements. Make clips of Obama's high-profile supporters telling why they support him.  

Mass-burning DVDs is about as inexpensive as printing the color glossy mailers that go out multiple times during a campaign. And mailing them is also cheap.  People could take a look at Obama on their own time, in their own homes, and would then come to know that Hillary's mud-slinging and innuendos are simply untrue.

Kudos to anyone who can get this suggestion up the chain of command in the Obama campaign.

Is it possible for committed feminist like myself to actively campaign for Obama? I remember the first time I heard Hilary speak, almost 20 years ago, so impressed by her, and wondering if I would ever live to see the day when she might become our president. Now that this is a distinct possibility, I am shocked to find myself where I presently am. I have to say it isn’t easy to abandon Hilary, who is smart, ready, and able to be president. I can’t help but respect her command of the issues when I see her in the debates. But, and this is a big BUT, as a feminist I am concerned for the future of our children, and unborn grandchildren, as well as for the planet if our broken system of corporate-domination of American politics is not radically changed.

As a long-time feminist activist and founder of two successful women’s organizations, I would love to see a woman president. But the very future of our nation, and world, depend on bold leadership, buttressed by a massive movement for political change. Whoever, can galvanize such a movement has my vote, regardless of gender. The critical issues facing our nation today transcend identity politics, whether racial or gender-based.

The survival of the planet, and of the American middle/working class, require bold leadership, backed by a Congress that is willing to do the right thing, regardless of corporate concerns for how this will affect their profitability. It is not news to anyone anymore that the huge multi-national corporations care only about their own bottom lines, and have abandoned any sense of good citizenship to this country, to their workers, to the environment, and to the communities they operate in. It is an open secret that their lobbyists are writing the laws, and that our legislators owe their first allegiance to their corporate donors, rather than to the public interest. I admire Hilary Clinton, but the Clintons, no matter how personally liberal, are very much products of this system, and owe their political careers to their mastery of it. For every social justice or women’s rights program they get, they give away the store in the back rooms where economic deals are made. (NAFTA, media conglomeration, and the wholesale appointment of corporate lackeys to the positions on the federal regulatory commissions that oversee their own industries, are but a few examples).

Hilary, no matter how sincere, is a product of this system, and even if she honestly wanted to, would be unable to change it, since it would require the cooperation of the Congress, who itself is corporate-sponsored. I supported Hilary when I believed that the undue influence of lobbyist money was an intractable part American real-politics, and given that, felt she would at least use the power she did have to tinker around the edges on behalf of social programs that benefited the rest of us. That was the best I thought possible given the reality that elections are massively expensive, and to win them required accepting huge corporate donations, with strings attached. Until now.

Although Edwards campaigned vigorously on the issue of getting corporate money out of politics, I never believed that he would have the ability to actually do anything about it even if he were elected President. I figured that the corporate-owned Congress would sabotage anything he proposed, just as Bill Clinton’s Democratic congress sabotaged Hilary’s healthcare plan. At least Hilary had the political skills to game the system, and manage to fulfill some social agenda issues, I thought. While in theory I believed that a mass movement from the grassroots might possibly be strong enough to win an election without taking corporate money, I never thought the slumbering masses of exhausted Americans would ever rise up to organize. Until now.

Barack Obama’s campaign is unique in modern American history in that it is much more than a political campaign for high office. He is building a viable mass movement of folks, like myself, who are mobilized, energized, and actively working to reinvigorate the Democratic party so that it once again represents the public interest. He/we have already demonstrated what this means: (1) millions of dollars can be raised to go toe-to-toe with the corporate donations received by the Clinton machine, and (2) voters can be turned out in huge numbers, sufficient to win where it counts, at the ballot box. This is the true meaning of grassroots democracy, and it represents real political strength. Obama, if elected by this mass uprising of a newly energized electorate, will have a true mandate to change the system. For real. A Congress that doesn’t go along will find itself replaced by a new generation of Obama Democrats, because our movement will have proven that it can formidably win elections against corporate-sponsored candidates.

As a feminist I have been active on almost every front of our historic quest for gender justice. But the movement that Obama is creating to build a grassroots organization capable of sending honest politicians to Washington, in order to take back our government institutions from the undue influence of the special interests, is perhaps the defining issue of these times. If feminism’s core value is equality, then, it can only achieve marginal victories within a system that is so unequal, with the power of the political machinery controlled by the corporate elite, dominated by a white male old boy system that does not reflect the demographic changes that feminism has achieved on the ground.

For the first time ever I, like so many others, volunteered to be a precinct captain and to call my neighbors on behalf of Obama—a task I was at first hesitant to take on. I was amazed that people were really receptive to the fact that a real person, a neighbor yet, was calling instead of some paid script reader, or telephone droid. Many of them were impressed that this was not the first phone call they had received from the Obama campaign, and were awed that indeed he seemed to be mobilizing an army of volunteers. Also, to my great surprise, many told me that their Republican family members, who would never vote for a Clinton, were thinking about voting for Barack should he get the nomination. And others told me that their adult children who had never voted, and had been turned off to politics, were voting for Obama as well. And I saw for myself the massive turn-out of young adults at an Obama speech I attended. Out of 8,000 PAYING attendees in the audience, over half were young. Like me, they came out, paying $15 for a ticket (non-students paid $30), and stood in line for 3 HOURS to wildly cheer this amazing man’s message of hope, determination, clarity and vision. Everyone who attended was asked to sign up on the campaign, and the majority did. This campaign truly understands how to effectively organize and raise money as well as volunteers. This is nothing short of impressive.

Last weekend we were challenged as a statewide organization to make 100,000 calls on behalf of Obama. I did my part for about 2.5 hours, and wondered if we had reached our collective goal. I was heartened to hear that at the end of the day we had actually managed to contact 200,000 likely voters—double the goal. Many hands make work light. What an incredible organization this is. The people united cannot be defeated is what we used to chant, and now I can proudly say, the truth of that slogan is being played out in this remarkably well-run and effective campaign.

If our movement secures the nomination for Obama, I admit a part of my heart will break for Hilary’s personal loss. But with an Obama presidency, Hilary will be able to go back to the Senate and actually get passed the kind of social and economic justice legislation that she has always dreamed of. With an Obama mandate, and her hands untied from corporate influence, she will rise to greatness as the change-agent she once aspired to become, before she understood that in deference to her corporate sponsors she had to lower her sights, and compromise her goals. She will no longer have to be satisfied with small incremental changes, but can at last put her incredible vision to work actually crafting the kind of system-changing legislation we as a nation need and deserve. She will be able to fully walk her talk, and we will all be the beneficiaries—women, children, and our men. The energy of Obama’s movement is the only way for this to become possible. So I guess I am a feminist for Obama.