My letter to Sen. Barb:

[PSU84]

Hon. Barbara Mikulski
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Mikulski:

Congratulations on your re-election to the United States Senate. I voted for you in 2004, just as I did in 1998, 1992, and 1986. You have been very effective in representing the interests of Maryland residents in the U.S. Senate, and I wish you continued success in the future.

Like millions of Americans, I am disappointed at the result of the Presidential election. I am also disappointed that the President almost immediately announced that the result represented a “mandate” for his radical domestic, foreign, and military policies. I hope you will agree with me that a bare 51% majority of the vote – the percentage of the popular vote that the President received – does not constitute a “mandate” by any reasonable definition of the term. John F. Kerry received 56.4 million votes for President – including my vote. This represents 48% of all votes cast in the general election. Our candidate did not win, but that does not mean that our votes count for nothing. Democracy does not allow for a “tyranny of the majority.”

In Maryland, John Kerry received 1.2 million votes – 56% of all Presidential votes cast in the state. Democrats won six of Maryland’s eight seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, receiving 1.2 million votes – 58% of all votes cast in Maryland’s Congressional races. You yourself received nearly 1.4 million votes, or 65% of all votes cast in the U.S. Senate race in Maryland. Clearly, the majority of voters in Maryland favor the policies, priorities, and values of the Democratic Party! I am writing to you today to urge you to stand up and fight for those values and priorities in the U.S. Senate and to defend them against any further attacks by the Bush Administration and the Republican majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate. In the next four years, I ask that you work towards these goals:

∙ There must be no “Patriot Act II” and the unnecessary excesses of the Patriot Act should be repealed;

∙ Social Security must be made financially sound for the future without privatization;

∙ Medicare must be strengthened financially and it must not be further privatized;

∙ The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and environmental laws must be enforced and not weakened.

For good or ill, the United States must endure the continuance in office of George W. Bush. The people of the United States have been tested in the past and we have always come through. We can do it again.

Sincerely,

[VTdem]

1. good letter