Three and a half years later and Howard Dean is chairman of the DNC, the Democrats have just won a majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the American public has made it known they are no longer supporting the war in Iraq.

We've come a long way. Now the question for Democrats Abroad, the overseas arm of the Democratic Party, is: Where do we go from here?

Number one, we Democrats are determined to govern. The Nation was right to suggest in its November 6 editorial, "The United States at War with Itself," that the US population has been split by an extremist, divisive Bush Administration and a controversial war. People are tired of the fighting, both at home and in the Middle East.

It would be hard to interpret these mid-term elections as anything but a firm rejection of Bush's divide-and-rule tactics at home, and of the incredible waste of resources and lives in a tragic war in Iraq.

Yet, that doesn't mean that the Democrats need to spend the next two years punishing Bush. Instead, Democrats will focus on the agenda on which they ran - and won.

Democrats are committed to ending the cycle of death and escalating violence in Iraq, a wrongful, pre-emptive war that's bleeding our nation of lives, money and moral authority around the globe.

Democrats are committed to putting the common good back into public policy. We are proposing legislation to lower drugs prices and create a healthcare system that covers all Americans. By giving minimum wage a long-overdue boost, Democrats are coping with the increasing gap between rich and poor, a gap that betrays the promise of America.

Democrats are committed to restoring checks and balances to our government, and to ensuring that the president and his administration are held accountable.

Democrats are committed to stopping torture - whether in Guantanamo, Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world - and to restoring the credibility of habeas corpus.

Democrats are committed to the agenda of tomorrow: preserving our environment, tackling global energy, focusing on alternative energy and demanding fiscal responsibility in the government.

And, perhaps most significantly for Democrats Abroad, Democrats are committed to restoring some of the international goodwill for Americans.

We recognise the Bush Administration, with its reckless unilateral actions, has tarnished the reputation of the United States. Guests in our host countries, Americans overseas appreciate in a very real way how people, economies and natural resources are interconnected. In the last six years, the Bush Administration has eroded the bonds among nations and citizens, and we are all the poorer for it.

The good news is that Democrats Abroad, with its understanding of the importance of international partnerships, has a voice in the Democrat Party. We lobby the government, send a delegation with votes to the DNC, and elect eight members to the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC. Throughout the year, we keep Americans abroad informed on US political events, and in the months before elections launch a major "get-out-the-vote" effort. Many of us come from "swing states", where only a few votes decide the outcome. The write-in ballots Democrats Abroad mailed a few weeks ago undoubtedly helped swing a few states in our favour this week.

The bottom line is that Americans at home and abroad care, and care very deeply, about reining in this administration's disastrous policies and restoring our credibility as a global citizen. Any portrait of Americans as complacent and accepting of political spin, which assures us that George Bush is in the White House and all is right in the world, is not only wrong but cynical. That the majority of voters cited corruption and the war in Iraq as their two biggest concerns suggests Americans are not content with the current state of affairs. And the level of political frustration in the United States may actually be a good sign: it means we are not seduced by the promise of a Hollywood-style happy ending.

No one knows better than the Democrats, whose legislative reforms are likely to be met by a stubborn president, that change is hard work. But, we are entering into these final two years of Bush's term with good faith and readiness to work with, not against, our Republican compatriots and international allies. And, if met with intransigence, we are willing to push for the agenda we know is right, and that the American public has supported.

Conventional political wisdom holds that people are motivated by two things: hope and fear. The Bush administration has given us fear. Now we have hope.

Philip Robertson is chair and Kelly Nuxoll is vice chair of Democrats Abroad, Thailand.

Philip Robertson,

Kelly Nuxoll 

Special to The Nation