To the editor:

Last week's Phoenix contained a letter to the editor characterizing the overwhelming number of Rhode Islanders who voted to send Gabe Amo to congress as "uninformed, misinformed, naive, cowardly, or complicit", and as a lifelong Democrat who proudly voted for Gabe, I respectfully disagree with the letter writer's disparaging characterization of myself and the tens of thousands of other voters who gave Gabe a landslide victory.

The letter writer who was critical of Gabe Amo supporters (and Democrats in general) constantly beat the drum about the definition of insanity and doing the same same thing over while expecting a different result used the same tired old excuse that the minuscule number of Republicans in Rhode Island have been complaining about for years. They know that in Rhode Island a ham sandwich could win an election as long as that ham sandwich was a Democrat, but every election they nominate some no-name gadfly with the unrealistic expectation that the sacrificial lamb Republican actually has a chance of winning, which they obviously don't.

And while I'm not usually inclined to give out free advice, the letter writer from last week who thought the Republican candidate stood a chance of winning with his right wing views on abortion, gay rights, gun control, and similar issues might want to re-think his thoughts on the definition of insanity, as my definition of insanity is any voter in Rhode Island who thinks a Republican actually stands a chance of winning an election in this state.

Mike Proto
Bristol