LEFT, RIGHT, CENTER...

... we must all be democrats on November 6!

I've given a lot of thought to this letter that I'll begin sending out to friends everywhere today. I should be able to reach several hundred people, most of them here in Orange County or Los Angeles. The plea applies elsewhere as much as it does in our own congressional district. 

If you find the letter useful, please copy and paste or adapt the words as appropriate and send it on to your own list of contacts. 

Dear Friends,

Please forgive my imposition on our friendship for a purpose that is at least in part political. For many of you, I have no way of knowing your political views; but it is my firm conviction that the current election cycle makes it imperative that every one of us cast a vote and that—left, right or center—we vote for our Democratic candidate.

I came to America as a green-card immigrant in 1964. I became a citizen in 1972. I thought to leave behind a culture still dominated politically by prejudice and class-consciousness and to find, here, a truly functioning democracy. Given our current socio-political environment, it has become painfully clear that democracy cannot survive, let alone thrive, on a one-party system—yet that is what we have effectively arrived at.

The coming election is about more than politics. It is about whether our vulnerable democracy can survive a period in which reckless, dangerously uninformed and nationalist authoritarianism runs wild, unimpeded by the constitutionally provided “checks and balances” that were intended to prevent precisely this eventuality.

Your vote and mine will determine the existence of an effective oppositional power, which we all depend on to assure the persistence of a free society. For this reason alone, if not out of habitual partisan loyalty, I ask you to join me in casting your vote to save us from the looming and imminent threat of tyranny.

If this plea strikes a chord with you and you share my concern, I ask you to pass it on to your own friends, and friends of friends.  Should my letter seem like a useful tool in broadcasting our mutual sense of urgency, please forward it, whether edited or in its entirety, to everyone you know.

Ellie joins me in expressing our respect and love for all, Peter