Election 2004: Anna Eshoo reflects on pluses, challenges, and the culture wars Election 2004: Anna Eshoo reflects on pluses, challenges, and the culture wars (November 10, 2004)

By Marion Softky
Almanac Staff Writer

"We have to think about the extra pluses that came out of the election," said Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, D-Atherton, two days after a historic election when she won re-election by 70 percent over two opponents while in the presidential race, her party went down to bitter defeat.

Ms. Eshoo said she is encouraged and energized by the passionate efforts of millions of new volunteers who fanned out over the country to support Kerry and defeat Bush.

"We need to hold on to them and build for the future," she said in a telephone interview from her Atherton kitchen. "The next round of elections will be in two years for the House and Senate."

Beyond that new hope and energy, Ms. Eshoo worries about the culture wars that split the country into red and blue, and the concrete challenges of war and the economy facing the new administration.

"The Democratic Party needs to look long and hard to examine what the culture wars mean to them and to the country," Ms. Eshoo warns. "Make no mistake. This is a war."

She particularly worries about the new religiosity that pervades so many issues and undermines the separation of church and state.

"This is something very basic," Ms. Eshoo says. "You can't talk to people about issues if they believe God is intervening on their side.

"We need a very serious conversation and examination of how morality and ethics play a key role," she continued. "If you can't get to first base, how do you get to the next base?"

By now, Ms. Eshoo is back in Washington confronting issues in a new, more Republican Congress with a president who claims a mandate.

Now that he has toppled Saddam Hussein and won re-election, will President Bush revert to his early campaign promises to be a "compassionate conservative" and a uniter not a divider?

Ms. Eshoo is not hopeful.

"I would welcome a change," she reflected. "The president has to use more than words to put power into action. He needs to reach across the aisle. The country needs that."

Meanwhile, the challenges facing the Congress and the nation are enormous, Ms. Eshoo said. The nation has its heaviest debt burden ever, she said, and is fighting three wars -- against terror, and in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our kids are being lost every day."

"The president needs to make the economy work for everyone in the country, not just the well-off," Ms. Eshoo said. "These are enormous challenges.

"And they are just for starters."

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