Letter Of The Day

comes to us from the young reader board at des moines register:

The problem with Democrats today is they seem to aspire only to be Republican-lite. Corporate interests, the costs of campaigns and the focus on "base issue" polling have given us a landscape of demo-clones who all say mostly the same thing with slightly differing degrees of believability.

Why would Democratic voters feel energized when they feel as if they are voting for what seems like progressive or moderate Republicans rather than real Democrats? We need the Democratic Party to shake down its entrenched leadership and organize its message.

Scream about the environment and the tax cuts, propose radical shifts from fossil fuels to renewable energies and force a real debate on health care rather than the same tired platitudes every time elections roll around.

I'll vote for the first person who stands up and shakes his or her finger at us in believable anger for allowing our current president to wiretap illegally, strand us in Iraq under false pretenses and destroy our budget surplus with staggering debt.
— Chris Gorder, Iowa Falls

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