A letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Congratulations on your new role as being the first female Speaker of the House. As a freshman woman at Duke University hoping to someday change the world, this exciting news gives me a lot of hope for the future of women across America. Thank you so much for being such an inspiration.

I don't know how much you will listen to the advice of an 18-year-old freshman in college whose experience with the House includes a tour in the gallery, but I am deathly afraid that the Democrats will repeat the mistakes of the Republicans in 1994.

When the Republicans won control of the House in that 104th Congress for the first time in 40 years, they were understandably elated. However, their popularity quickly dwindled and they were easily crushed, both by President Bill Clinton's adept political skills and mainly by their own actions. As I am not worried about President George W. Bush's "adept political skills," my main concern lies with the latter issue. The Democratic Party needs to be wise about its political decisions, now that it has control of the House and Senate (I <3 you Virginia!). The hackneyed quote still applies- "Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

Part of the reason the Republicans failed so miserably was because House Speaker Newt Gingrich failed to differentiate between the people voting for the Republicans and those voting against the Democrats. Please consider that this may be the case in America today, and avoid succumbing to Gingrich's hubris. The importance of this fact is reflected in the "Contract with America," the Republicans' failed 1994 checklist of legislative reforms. It kept the Republicans dedicated to the fulfillment of limited goals, and as a result, they failed to institute many real changes that the American people actually wanted.

The Democrats of this Congress need to realize that this election is far from a decisive affirmation of the Democratic Party; indeed, the slim margins of victory indicate the absolute reverse. Although I doubt Democrats would even consider a legislative plan with such a hokey name as "Contract with America," the possibility of pursuing latently packaged legislative reforms is possible, and scares me-a Democrat. Be humble. Be wise. Be above all, honest. This election has proven only that Americans are fed up with the corruption of the Republicans. I would like to argue that Democrats are above all this amorality, but we are not infallible. Those in POWER are the ones who usually find themselves wrought with scandal, and they do not always belong to a certain "Grand Old Party."

To paraphrase your own words, Rep. Pelosi, this week you've made history. Now it's time to make progress.

Priyanka Chaurasia

Trinity '10