A Victory Speech for November 9

As the Republicans continue to try to scare us into losing, I thought it would be beneficial to write a potential victory speech one of us might give on November 8:

My fellow Americans, as we celebrate our victories and regaining the control of both houses of Congress, we must stop for a moment before we move on to the job of cleaning up the mess, and taking new steps to make laws that benefit most Americans, rather than the few.

Before we take those steps we must pause to consider the recent past. It is our responsibility to attach responsibility for the state of the nation. While we were out of power our nation was taken to war under false pretenses. And once at war, those in positions of responsibility, although they dislodged Saddam from power, did not heed the words of the Iraqi people when they said, before the war, to many journalists, "Depose Saddam, but leave quickly or face the consequences. We are a complex nation, made of many groups who have been kept from each other's throats by the dictatorship of Saddam. But the one thing we Iraqis hate worse than one another, is the invader. Have you not read our history?"

The Republicans did not hear them. As the bodies of our military men and women were coming home, hidden from us, the Republicans were sending their corporate benefactors, their pockets filled with our money, and money borrowed in our names, into Iraq to "rebuild." They did not rebuild. They profited from the blood of our children, brothers, sisters, fathers, husbands and wives. Many Iraqis feel they are worse off now than under Saddam.

Meanwhile the Republicans tortured in our names, broke the Geneva Conventions, spied illegally on us, subjected our military people to death from all sides in a civil war, and breached the U.S. Constitution when they monkeyed with habeas corpus.

Our first pledge to you is to find out what happened and why, who is responsible, and how they can be held accountable. We now have subpoena power. The Republicans can no longer block Congressional oversight. We promise to conduct fair but tough investigations into why we went to war, how we went to war, and who profited from the war and what laws we can pass to make sure this never happens again.

The Constitutional questions are difficult. There are still three branches of government and the current President is of a mind to continue these outrageous acts of aggression on traditional American values. We pledge to fight for the Constitution and for the freedoms and privacy we have always come to expect.

We promise to spare not a single penny in caring for the Americans who fought in Iraq and were injured. Full medical care. Proper respect. Our thanks and a promise that America will never again fight a war for the wrong reasons.

So there is a lot to clean up in that regard.

There is so much more to clean up. Curing the cancer of incompetence and neglect and of the fox watching the hen house when it comes to industry regulations, environmental safeguards and scientific research, will take time. We wish we could stop it today, but that's not realistic. The Republicans still control the Executive branch of government, but the days of their running roughshod over the health and safety of the American people so that corporations can make obscene amounts of money are over.

This is going to take time. There has been much damage done. The United States Government is in tatters thanks to the perfect storm of greed and incompetence of those who have held power these past years.

You have given us a direct message. Work in the interests of the American people, not corporations. Make decisions based on what is the right choice, not on what will play to the worst in us.

Most of all, the best thing we can do from this day forward is to replace the climate of fear with one of hope. This can't be done overnight. Fear will give way slowly. When we implement all of the recommendations of the 911 Commission … that will be a first step. But what you can expect from us is that we will confront our problems with confidence, not fake bravado; that we will, as we always have, include everyone in the actions of government, not demonizing one group or another in order to build hate.

We're not about hate. We never have been.

Give us some time. This is the first step, but it's a new day. Let's go to work.

This is also on huffingtonpost.com