July 22, 2009

  • Dear Mr. President,

    I'm sure you get a lot of letters from people. Many of them coddle you. Not all of them are pleasant. You probably get more than George Bush ever did.. just because most of us feel a little more connected to you than we did to him.

    You listen. He didn't, too often. While I'm not going to blame everything that we were left in afterward on him, the missteps he did make were made because he didn't listen.

    He didn't listen when we said Don't go to war. Send special forces to kill Osama, instead. He didn't listen when we said "Hell no" to No Child Left Behind. He didn't listen when we told him to re-ban assault weapons as the last thing we need is even more deadly weapons for the wrong hands to have access to.

    But you listen. This is why we write to you, often.. some of it about our lives and some of it about the constructive criticisms we have for you. These are things that you need to hear and listen to, as you seek to run an effective presidency.

    The letter you get from me that you get, today, is to tell you some truths that I think you need to hear, right now, this moment.

    Right now, you are surrounded by the chorus of cynics.. and they are growing louder and more dissonant just as you described before winning the office. Some of them are coming from the other side of the line. Far too much of it is coming from your own side.

    I expect as much from the Republican side, because.. at the end of the day.. they are an opposing political viewpoint.. and so most of what you do won't meet their approval. What I, myself, don't understand is why there are so many Democrat politicians rising up against what you're trying to do.. when virtually every one of them stood beside you and sung your plan's praise during the election. My thought is that they're getting back to the game.. the very one that you said you won't be a part of, if elected.

    My advice to you is, therefore, to be mindful of who your friends are.. and to abandon this notion of bipartisanship before it renders all of your first year moot. You won't get elected again to continue your work, if you continue to let so much time be consumed trying to hold hands and agree on everything with everyone. It wouldn't be politics and we would never get into trouble as a nation, if that were possible. It's never truly been a fruitful political virtue in our nation's history, accept for maybe when we were at war and the consensus was to do whatever defeats the enemy. It's wasting time, at this point.. and you've constantly reiterated that we don't have much time. We asked  for a Bull Moose candidate, and this is what you presented yourself to be. This is why we sicced you on Washington. Remember that and act in it's understanding, until the second of the hour of the day your gig is over, Mr President.

    Meanwhile, I applaud you for understanding the inconvenient truths of today that.. you might well have to endure an unpopular presidency in order to offset. I also applaud you for finally letting a tinge of anger show. We know that with the crippling and downsizing of industries that used to define this country's muscle, new industries must be seeded. We know that we must match wits with the rest of the world on the subject of social development and reforms. Those who voted for you and those who wanted to but didn't ..did so in recognition of the fact our whole house must change into a place where we can live again, as it is far dilapidated, currently. Supporters of yours like myself have been waiting for a bare few personal things from you, though.. and one of them is that your dissatisfaction with things show in the tone of your voice and the curve of your brow, as it does in ours, everyday. I think that you'd better use it more productively, though, and show it more consistently from this point on.. because otherwise, you give your opposition the idea that they're getting inside you & making you believe you're in over your head, as some have said, from the beginning, that you are. The day you give up, though, is the day everyone abandons all hope*, though.

    You say you don't give attention to the poll numbers, and I don't think you should take them to heart. If you're going to, at least be mindful that the current numbers reflect something more than just flat-out disapproval. They reflect the fact that much of the nation is still scared for the future, as well we should be.

    The needless tug of war going on in Washington.. with your opposition and some on your side mobilizing for what seems to be a legislative civil war, still believing they can "win" against you.. is making people fearful that the changes we asked you to set into motion won't come in time to save things that are slipping away from us and slipping out of hopeful reach as time goes on.. because the motions to do so will be forever locked in bureaucratic quagmire. We don't flench when the opposition brings up the fact that you're going to create more debt, because the fact is.. these same people weren't so debt conscious before now.. and that's why we went from a national surplus into a debt.

    We understand that, one way or another, the federal government has to spend money.. else.. what would we save it for and why should we pay into a hoard, and why not pay taxes if you want productive schools, communicable roads, a viable military and presentable health care that you can't produce for yourself. We understand that means that, even by doing nothing.. we are drifting into debt because the country must always go on and never dead-stop. We, thus, understand that all you're trying to do is make the next round of loans.. or money that we don't have that you must spend count for something. We understand that you are trying to invest in the things that will restore this nation's productivity and render us able to fight our way out of debt in the decades following your administration as we would not be able to, in our current condition.

    What the polls don't truly reflect are the number of those who see where you're going with all this.. and thus don't feel a need to speak, since we did that with our votes. Some of us feel the need to be redundant and entertain the compulsory opinion polls.. but most of us will only do as humans do.. sound off only when there's a problem. So, be mindful of the psychology behind the numbers, but not the numbers themselves.. as they are likely to swing and sway, with every first pitch you throw.

    There isn't a single soul here who didn't know what you were going to begin doing when you got into the oval office and who had no idea it'd be this hard. We elected you, because you said you'd bring about some very specific changes.. and you'd pull our Johnsons out of most of the fires we've been stuck in, some of which since the Cold War. You said you'd pull us from Iraq by 2010-11. We understand that we've made a mess over there and, in that context, that it isn't as simple as just ordering all the chopper crews to evacuate everyone and then forgetting all about the place, like we did in Viet Nam and Mogadishu. I'm sure those troops who've been able to come home, so far, appreciate it anyway. I'm sure their families do, too. Troops have a job to do, but they are not toy soldiers or expendable units in a videogame. It makes me happy that we have a commander-in-chief who understands that there are human lives on hold and at extreme risk, as we mull over what to do in these places.

    So, by now you should understand that.. we understand what you're up to. You should have seen by now that the game goes on whether you want it to or not.. because that's what politics is. What you do from here is to decrease the leniency and levity and bipartisanship that you operate with. I'm sure you've discovered by now that it's not as productive as you'd hoped it would be and that those who feel they can will treat you like the dumb black NBA player who made a wrong turn into the white house will do so for as long as you let them.

    Your executive order, from the people, is hereby to take back your streets and finish constructing them the way we asked for them to be rebuilt. You don't have time for the BS you're wading through when you should be steamrolling and cementing over it. To do that, you need to step back, right now, suck in your gut, straighten your back, sharpen your tongue.. and remind those who don't yet get it that you're the chief.. and then get down to your business.

    P.S. Leave North Korea the hell alone before they actually do something harmful; They've been on a tangent ever since their name emerged from GWB's mouth. Put Hilary Clinton back on her leash, please. She's going to talk us into bad relations with too many places. Annnnd wolf whistle @ Michelle at some point today, for me.
    That is all.