Dear Mr. President,
I write this letter fully aware of my status as an ordinary citizen and one whose voice is only one of three hundred million in this country. Compelled -- and indeed revulsed -- by the circumstances over these past six years during which I've seen my country drift dangerously towards domestic political radicalism and jingoism, I must register my disgust as I, just like you, sir, value and love my country deeply. The damage inflicted by you and your accomplices upon this country will be evaluated by future historians. Their judgements, I'm afraid, will neither positively enhance your political legacy nor give you the satisfaction that all presidents seek years after they've left the White House.
To quote a literary hero of mine
I am being brief, for this is but the abridged version of a story whose sordid pages will some day be written out in full... This is the plain truth, Mr. President, and it is terrifying. It will leave an indelible stain on your presidency.
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The details are too numerous to elaborate for the purposes of this letter, Mr. President, and best left for another day. So, I'll get right to the point...
* I accuse you, with an assist from the Supreme Court of the United States, for illegally ascending to this powerful office in December 2000. In line with your political party's beliefs, if ever there was a 'States Rights' case, it was Bush v Gore.
* I accuse you and your National Security Team for being asleep at the switch in 2001 and doing (almost) nothing in preventing the greatest attack on the homeland since 1812.
* I accuse you and this Republican Congress for exploiting this terrorist attack, costing 3000 American lives, at every conceivable juncture for purely partisan advantages -- with most of the perpetrators still at large.
* I accuse you and your administration in 2002-03 for beating the drums of war, subverting decades of American foreign policy traditions by shunning traditional allies, concocting false reasons for an unnecessary war, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, and of underming America's diplomatic position in the world.
* I accuse and your Defense Department for badly underestimating the troops needed for occupying Iraq and preventing tens of thousands of American and Iraqi deaths.
* I accuse you, your Department of Homeland Security, and FEMA of criminal negligence in coordinating the rescue efforts and saving lives following Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast in 2005.
* I accuse you and this Republican Congress of fiscal mismanagement and imposing trillions of dollars of debt on American families, one that many future generations will toil away to pay down.
* I accuse you and this Republican Congress for subverting the Constitution of the United States by suspending numerous laws dealing with war detainees, illegal wiretapping, and sanctioning prisoner torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
* I accuse you and this Republican Congress of undermining years of progress made in several areas of domestic policy, restricting our civil rights, and of widening income and wealth inequality.
* I accuse you and this Republican Congress of negligence, incompetence, lies, deceit, arrogance, and corruption in managing this country's domestic and foreign affairs.
To clarify something that might elude your understanding
As for the people [in your administration] I am accusing, I do not know them, I have never seen them, and I bear them neither ill will nor hatred. To me they are mere entities, agents of harm to society.
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In one of her regular columns in the Washington Post written several months after the 2001 terrorist attacks when you were contemplating an illegal and immoral war with Iraq, the late Mary McGrory wrote that "there are times to be a Texan and times to be an American." With your military attack on the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in October 2001, you passed the first test. And the country (and most of the rest of the world) cheered you on. Since then, sir, it is the second test that you've failed miserably at. And for that, our country has suffered immeasurably.
We as a people are painfully aware that we must tolerate your 'leadership' for at least two more years. For now, you and your cohorts in crime must be answerable to the electorate for the carnage you've inflicted upon the American people. Those are the demands a modern democracy must make upon its elected leaders. And you and your political party, sir, are no exception to that most basic of democratic principles nor are exempt from being accountable for your actions.
Well over two hundred years ago, the founders of this country introduced a political system of checks and balances and though not altogether perfect, it, nonetheless, contains within it a remedy and mechanism for self-correction. You've have had your say over these past six years. Now, in less than two weeks, it's our turn. For the good of our country and in the name of fairness, perhaps the most cherished of American values, we will not only demand political change but, indeed, insist upon it.
For our part, anything less, sir, would be downright un-American.
Yours respectfully,
JekyllnHyde