This isn't propaganda. This is not possibly something an aide could have written, though I do obviously know this is a form letter.
I have no links - I just wanted to share this. This is Jon's e-mail thanks to his supporters.
Did I mention that I love this man?
More below the fold.
It gets better with the update below.
Dear Rich,
We did this together.
When Sharla and I sat down 18 months ago and decided that we had to try to increase opportunities for our new grand-daughter -- and your kids and your grandkids -- we knew that the road from Big Sandy to Washington, D.C. would be a long one.
Many didn't believe that we could ever complete the journey -- didn't believe that a dirt farmer from Big Sandy, whose grandparents homesteaded here, could beat an incumbent Senator with a ton of money.
But as we traveled the state and talked to people, we found we weren't alone in wanting a better future for our kids and grandkids. And from those conversations began the greatest grassroots campaign for change that Montana has ever seen.
You built that campaign. You believed. And now, 100,000 miles later -- here we are. Real Montana is ready for Real Change.
I cannot thank you enough for everything you have done. Words cannot express how deeply grateful and deeply honored Sharla and I are for the hard work and support that grassroots and netroots Democrats gave to this campaign. You opened up your schedules, opened up your wallets, and opened up your hearts to make Montana and our country a better place.
And because of your hard work and efforts, hundreds of thousands of Montanans joined you and our call for change on Election Day.
This never would have happened without you.
The message sent by Montanans in this election is clear: it is time to get to work. Time to make government work again for ordinary Montanans. Time to fix health care. Time to achieve energy independence. Time to find a plan to end the crisis in Iraq and bring our troops home. Time to restore the Montana values of honesty and integrity to the United States Senate. And time to end destructive party politics and work together for real solutions and real change in Montana and this great nation.
And so now -- after I finish up a few chores on the farm this weekend -- it is time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.
But first I wanted to thank you. I want to thank Sharla, Christine and James, Shon, my mother and my brothers for their inspiration. I want to thank Governor Brian Schweitzer, for all that we have achieved together here in Montana and for all his support on the campaign trail. I want to thank Senator Max Baucus for his leadership, counsel and support -- I look forward to serving with Max for many years to come to bring needed energy and investment to our great state. And I want to thank Senator Conrad Burns for his 18 years of service to our state, and his pledge to make the transition a smooth one for the benefit of all Montanans.
But most of all, I want to thank the people of Montana and you for all of your hard work. There aren't many places in this great country where a small family farmer with just a few acres could make it to the United States Senate.
I will never forget all the work you have done to make this victory possible. In fact, I will remember it every day. I know the trust and hope you have put into this campaign, and I will always do my best to honor the work you have done.
This campaign has always been about the people of Montana, about neighbors talking to neighbors about what we can achieve together.
And we have proven that when we work together, Montanans can achieve what many believe to be impossible.
Winston Churchill said that politicians work for the next election, and that statesmen work for the next generation. I will do my best to work for the next generation of Montanans, and to get this country moving forward again for the benefit of Montana's working families.
Thank you, again, and God Bless you all.
Jon Tester
Of course, I live much too far away (Northern California) to have done anything other than a few minor contributions, but I and many others feel a very personal investment in this election, and to see a person like Tester go to the Senate is such a gratifying and hopeful event in our lives.
It is high time some real Americans participated in our republic. Not people who think smearing their opponents and squandering our seed corn on unnecessary and greed-driven wars is the way to govern our precious Republic; not people who have completely lost sight of the values our country was really founded upon; but people who know what it's like to have to scratch out a living, and still have their minds focused on the bigger picture.
Tester is a guy who I think of as a Jeffersonian Democrat. He is completely rooted in the soil. C'mon. he's an organic soybean farmer!
Yet, he thought big enough to build something larger. He's done things like fully fund Montana's children's health insurance program for the first time since it was enacted - without raising taxes. He is the very essence of a balanced, prudent, mild political individual who still does things that have a tangible benefit for thousands of people.
Now he's a Senator.
He's like a figure out of Victor Hugo.
I am so proud to support him and to see him defeat the superannuated, corrupt Conrad Burns.
Montana has a representative they can be proud of. Just thinking about Jon and what he represents brings tears to my eyes.
Godspeed, Jon.
**Update**The New York Times just published a Tester profile which firther confirms him in my mind as the anti-Bush in every possible way (partial quotes below):
All his life, Mr. Tester, 50, has lived no more than two hours from his farm, an infinity of flat on the windswept expanse of north-central Montana, hard by the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.
[Big Sandy] is a place with 105-degree summer days and winter chills of 30 below zero, where his grandparents are buried, where his two children learned to grow crops in a dry land entirely dependent on rainfall, and where, he says, he earned barely $20,000 a year farming over the last decade.
"It's always been tight, trying to make a living on that farm," said Mr. Tester, still looking dazed and bloodshot-eyed after defeating Senator Conrad Burns, a three-term incumbent, by fewer than 3,000 votes.
To make extra money, Mr. Tester taught music to schoolchildren, and still plays a decent trumpet despite having only seven fingers (he lost the rest to a meat grinder as a child). He got into politics just eight years ago in a sustained rage over what utility deregulation had done to small farmers and businesses in Montana.
I swear to God. This 300-pound lineman teaching music to schoolchildren?
Those freakin' kids must love him.
Is there a sweeter example of what this country can still be than someone like this going to the Senate?