Dear Mr. President,
This is not so much a request as it is a wake up call. I am not an early riser - especially on a snowy Valentine's day in Denver, but I awoke before sunrise to write this and worked on it off and on today. But something inside will not let me sleep, and it is you - I need you to get militant.
Let me begin with the 1990 North Carolina Senate Race - one of the first legitimate African American Candidates was running against Jesse Helms - a Senator who defended his Senate seat with a campaign of 'blacks taking your jobs'
That was the first election in my life where I saw open disenfranchisement of blacks in an election. This was in the form of long lines - sometimes 8 hours to vote, in predominantly black areas like Greensboro, Fayetteville and Durham...
I remember that night because it was apparent that no white voters were standing in line to cast their vote, only blacks. And many were sent letters about being convicts and threatened with arrest if they went to polling places.
Now as a white guy in the South, it was hard to know what to do in this case - I was angry, but the media made the issue about being black and angry, not white and angry, so I was confused.
(Now, as time has gone on, I have found out that Jesse Helms also funded the International Republican Institute, which destabilized many democracies, but in particular, Haiti, which was reduced to further poverty making the country ill-equipped to survive in normal times, much less during a national disaster... but i digress) The facts of the 1990 voter disenfranchisement were quickly forgotten, only to be repeated a decade later when blacks were listed as felons and taken off of legitimate voter roles as part of a complex strategy to get George Bush elected - through collusion with the Supreme Court, even though now we know that if there had really be a full recount in Florida, Gore would have won.
This was a terrible example of "activist judges" trampling on our democracy.
Once again, blacks were upset - in Florida, but the media showed angry white protesters screaming on behalf of Republican rights.
At that time I was working my first political campaign in Colorado, trying to unseat a little known Congressman who was making a name for himself in the wake of Columbine - Tom Tancredo.
After Tancredo soundly beat my candidate, I sadly watched Gore concede to the Supreme Court, and people went about their lives as usual. I thought, probably like a lot of people, that George Bush would probably govern very moderately, because the race was so close - and he would be the same kind of Centrist he was as the Governor of Texas.
But I was sadly mistaken. George Bush, our last President, took this country to the extreme right. His first major bill as President was the Bush Tax cuts, which started the out of control deficits we have today. This bill was so extreme in measure, it was viewed as unable to pass through a US Senate that had 51 Democrats and 49 Republicans because it would not be able to garner 60 votes to overcome a democratic filibuster. As it turned out though, Bush threatened to use Reconciliation (one of twenty two times Reconciliation has been used by both Democratic and Republican Presidents, just since 1980)- and went out and campaigned on his tax cut bill in Moderate Republican and Vulnerable Democratic Senate States. Bush ended up with 12 DEMOCRATS VOTING FOR THIS BILL. In the end, Bush did not even have to use Reconciliation, just the threat of it along with some campaigning got the job done.
Bush used his first term of his non-win election to send our country into a tailspin of spending and tax cuts, along with an unjustified War in Iraq, the passage of the Patriot act, Guantanamo, Torture, and the use of our Telecommunication services to spy on US citizens
I watched this and worked as a therapist with At risk kids, and when 2004 rolled around, I got back into politics. This time, for a Senator that I believed was an anti-Jesse Helms, John Edwards.
Again, I worked for local candidates, but specifically on the Kerry-Edwards campaign, and again, I saw the election go to Bush, with more shenanigans, this time with Ohio's votes being stolen.
After that campaign, I felt like giving up.
Were the democrats ever going to come back?
Even though Bush won re-election by the narrowest of margins for a sitting President, he went on to pass more terrible bills including numerous Free Trade Agreements, the re-authorization of the Patriot Act, and the Bankruptcy 'reform' bill - with even a few Dems joining in.
(hattip Hunter)
We democrats, angrier than ever, organized and fought for our candidates (me for Edwards) to find someone to stop this Republican trainwreck.
We all got together after the long primary season and voted for you to be the 'Change' we could believe in.
I was there at your Inauguration at the DNC Convention on the 50 yard line at Mile High Stadium - and I swear to God, when Stevie Wonder was singing 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours' I felt like I was in Church having a religious experience.
And when You spoke there and then, I was behind you 100%.
President Obama, you won in a landslide, and you, by mandate, were given the right to govern with a heavy hand by that right alone, but you also had a double majority - indicating a broad national consensus for a change.
But, in your attempt to be decent you have tried and tried to gain bi-partisanship for your legislation. Let me remind you of a little fact.
Newt Gingrich started the era of zero bipartisanship during the Republican Revolution of 1994 - 16 years ago - This revolution did not occur because Republicans actually had a revolution, it happened because a popular Democratic President who campaigned on Healthcare reform abandoned that idea in his first year in office - causing the unions and his base supporters to stay home for the 1994 elections.
(Which is starting to seem all to familiar with the upcoming 2010 midterms)
Since that time, Democrats have been like the guy with a 'kick me' sign on his back trying to make friends with the guys kicking him in the ass.
The only bipartisanship since then have been when Democrats have caved on their principles.
Since you were elected, Mr. President, I have watched and waited and waited and waited for that guy who swept us off our feet with his ability to disarm republican attacks and skillfully debate opponents with a ju-jitsu style.
What I have found is much the same as what happened the first year of the Clinton Presidency. We have a President who campaigned on 'Change' and on giving us Healthcare but who is not delivering on that promise.
But this time it is much, much worse. This time, thanks to George Bush, the same President that was seated by a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court, we have 2 newly appointed Right Wing Supreme Court Justices that have effectively ended our democracy by giving Corporations unlimited power and influence on our elections.
Mr. President, you said in an interview that you would 'rather be a good one term President' than a bad 2 term President, well, this Supreme Court decision may make you a one term President no matter what you do, so why not forget the 'bipartisanship' ideology that has been dead for nearly 2 decades and please stop saying things that are guaranteed to alienate voters.
The base is angry, and threatening not to turn out already the next election(s) because of the promises that are not being kept.
Maybe it takes a lesser mind to do what I am asking. I get the sense that Former President Bush showed up at work and there were letters on his desk from Halliburton and Dick Cheney that said 'pass torture', 'give rich friends tax breaks', 'start a war' and the George Bush just said 'OK' - and when the American Public and the majority of the World was so disgusted by these acts, Bush's advisors said, 'don't sweat it, history will judge how great you are', and that was good enough.
He's gone, but his 'historic legacy' of a 5 - 4 Supreme Court majority will likely go on for another decade.
So, what I am asking Mr. President, is to forget the cerebral "Harvard Law School President" approach for a second. This is not the Senate. This is a pick up a stick, throw sand, kick in the groin, knuckle brawl.
Get militant, while you are still the President and pass some legislation that will really help us.
2010 and 2012 are approaching very quickly, and you are getting less popular every day that Republicans paint you as a 'do nothing' President.
Go on the offensive. Instead of defending and watering down your agenda, take a page out of Move-On - call for Investigations of Cheney and Bushco. - make the Republicans defend their crimes and actions.
I sware it is a crime that Dick Cheney is on Television spouting more rhetoric when he should be in jail.
Turn the tables - and make them defend their policies and positions.
Tell Harry Reid to make the Republicans Filibuster - not just threaten it.
Republicans have decided to 'just say no' to anything you do or say. If we wait for Bipartisanship, especially with this new ruling from the Supreme Court, I fear that many more people will be disenfranchised - and not just in one state or one election, but from now on.
Bring out your militant side and pass your agenda through Reconciliation, while we still have a chance.