Dear Mr. President:
First, allow me to introduce myself. I am a long time supporter of yours, but a first time open-letter correspondent. If you go to my profile, sir, and read through my comments, you will find that I have frequently defended you from what I felt was unfair criticism or unduly harsh attacks.
I don’t think I am being immodest, sir, when I say that people like me were the backbone of your campaign and the key to your election last November.
(Full disclosure: I originally supported Dennis Kucinich’s campaign until I decided to "get real" in December of 2007 and threw my weight behind John Edwards [ouch!] until after the New Hampshire primary when I shifted my allegiance to the Clinton camp where I remained until she sold out her supporters [and the voters of Florida and Michigan] at that debacle in May at the DNC. I then briefly flirted with the idea of joining the PUMAs [I hope you understand, Mr. President, that it was nothing personal; it’s just that the PROCESS was COMPLETELY ILLEGITIMATE!])
Please follow me below the fold, sir.
It was during the Democratic National Convention that I pretty much decided I was definitely going to vote for you. In October, I gave some money to the DNC to support your campaign.
By early November, like the Apostle Paul after his conversion on the road to Damascus, I had completely bought into the whole "Hope" and "Change" thing, and was your most vocal champion and staunchest defender. On November 4th I even signed up with OFA and did some phonebanking as part of the GOTV effort.
Sir, nobody was more delighted than me when the results came in from Ohio confirming that we had elected our first African American President! Nobody stayed up later that night, drank more champagne, watched more election coverage on MSNBC, or slept in later on November 5th than me.
In short, Mr. President, I represent your base. In fact, sir, it wouldn't be exaggerating much to say I AM your base!
I share all of this with you not to ingratiate myself or out of an inflated sense of self-importance, but rather, Mr. President, so that you understand the spirit in which what I am about to say is being offered:
THE HONEYMOON IS OFFICIALLY OVER.
I began to have grave concerns in November 2008 when word started leaking about your cabinet, staff and advisor selections. Which brings me to the point where I must discuss with you some of what has been going on in this community.
If you spend a minute or two browsing through the comments that follow this diary, you will assuredly find several calling me TROLL!, or DIRTY HIPPIE!!, or telling me to STFU!!! And I’m sorry to inform you Mr. President that the people engaging in this opressive, fascistic group think will be doing so on your behalf, if not at your behest.
These kool-aid drinking ruffians have no idea that dissent is the life-blood of democracy! Their actions positively reek of totalitarian leanings. This is how it begins.
At the SLIGHTEST hint of even the most thoughtful, gentle, reasonable and constructive criticism, these hooligans will swarm a diary en masse and begin hide rating even the most civil of diarists in BLATANT violation of the rules!
You were elected in no small part to restore the rule of law, sir, and these thugs show up and begin dropping donuts (hide rating in their argot) all over the place, little caring whose dissent they are oppressing.
I would love to be able to hold you blameless for this state of affairs, Mr. President, but sadly I cannot. I cannot hold you blameless, sir, because it was YOU who selected Rahm Emanuel to be your Chief of Staff.
I must tell you Mr. President, from the moment I heard that you had selected Mr. Emanuel to be your CoS, I had GRAVE RESERVATIONS and in August of last year those reservations matured into shocked and horrified OUTRAGE!
It was in August, sir, that I learned that Mr. Emanuel had referred to a group of THE most important liberal activists, people who were absolutely KEY to your election and remain ESSENTIAL to your success (what possibility of limited success remains after the DEBACLE in Massachusetts) as, quote: "fucking stupid!" That is GROTESQUE!
These people, who YOUR CoS chose to insult, in the most brutal and repressive terms IMAGINABLE, are not only the absolute BEDROCK of your base sir, they are also some of the most BRILLIANT minds of their generation! And that makes Mr. Emanuel not just a FOOL but also a LIAR!
How could you possibly count on someone who is both a fool and a liar to advise you well?
Which brings me to my point: MR. PRESIDENT, YOU MUST FIRE RAHM EMANUEL RIGHT NOW!! And when I say now, I mean YESTERDAY!
I’ve believed all along that you needed to fire Mr. Emanuel, and the events of January 20, 2010 have irrefutably confirmed that I was 100% correct the entire time.
Sir, you cannot DITHER any longer: RAHM EMANUEL MUST GO!
A word on his replacement, Mr. President, if you will indulge me a little longer. As I understand it, the two main jobs of the Chief of Staff are to provide advice to the President and to be the President’s personal enforcer.
I am sure that you would agree, sir, that the President doesn’t need a CoS who will simply tell the President what he thinks the President wants to hear (or in Mr. Emanuel’s case, what the CoS’s corporate pay masters want the President to hear), but rather to tell the President what the American people are THINKING.
In order to tell you what everyone is thinking an adviser must be incredibly wise and, like my grandfather used to say "wisdom, like a sweater, is best homespun." It is in that spirit sir, that I recommend you think WAY outside the box and select Ed Schultz to be your next Chief of Staff.
Now, I know that would be a BOLD choice Mr. President and I know that bold choices haven’t exactly been your forte. But if you keep an open mind, I think you will understand why I say nobody could be better than Big Eddie.
First, Ed is sharp as a tack and NOBODY does political strategy better.
Second, Big Eddie speaks truth and he says it plain.
Third, nobody knows the inside of the heads of regular American people the way Big Eddie does.
And last, but not least: they don’t call him Big Eddie for nothing.
Can you imagine the looks on the faces of them Blue Dogs and Conservadems when Big Eddie rides into town on a Harley and starts crackin’ skulls. I’ll bet single payer would get back on the table in a HURRY!
I know that picking a guy like Ed Schultz to be your chief of staff is UNCOVENTIONAL and I also know that your style leans much more toward TIMID than BOLD. But look what your timidity has wrought Mr. President: a six point loss for the Democrats in Massachusetts! MASSACHUSETTS!!!
Now that you’ve LOST the Senate, Mr. President, I hope you’ll finally listen to your base. If you had only listened to us in the first place and nationalized the banks, passed a bigger stimulus, had Bush and Cheney marched out of the inauguration ceremony cuffed and shackled, fought for single payer (then we could have compromised down to a robust public option which would quickly led to a single payer system), and, most importantly, FIRED RAHM EMANUEL! And while you were at it you should have FIRED TIMMY GEITHNER and LARRY SUMMERS ("girls can’t do math"). And if you’re to afraid to fire these people, HIRE BIG EDDIE TO DO IT!
Mr. President, your people have given you nothing but bad advice from day one. If you want to find out what’s happening in the real world, I’ve got your primer right here. The following diaries (each of which I heartily endorse and concur with) are well worth reading CAREFULLY. I urge you to do so if you have ANY interest in salvaging the remainder of your presidency.
First, this gem by icebergslim is an absolute MUST read. This by clammyc is not far behind. And Lafeminista uses levity (I hope you like cats!) to make some very serious points.
All week there have been so many great diaries and comments written by the members of this community as we first anticipated and then absorbed an electoral defeat in Massachusetts (MASSACHUSETTS!), but this diary is already running long, so I can’t single them all out for individual praise, but it would behoove you, Mr. President, to read the advice that some of the smartest members of your base have to offer: here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Oh and HERE!
Okay Mr. President, I appreciate you hanging in there with me through this entire diary. I know that much of this was probably painful for you to read. But I tell you all of this sir because I want you to succeed!
One final word of advice Mr. President, the first thing you should do each morning and the last thing you do each night before you go to bed and constantly throughout the day also, you should come here and read through the rec list (I know you are busy, so I don’t expect you to read diaries that haven’t been recced up). Now, that would be change that I can believe in!
Sincerely,
YOUR BASE