Sunday, April 7, 2013

Dear President Obama



How often do you stop to wonder how history will remember the 44th president of the United States?

Now that you’ve returned from the Middle East, knowing that the hostility will not be resolved in your lifetime, now that you know that the number of murders in the US will remain the highest in the developed world, nearly 100 times higher than the next country on the list, now that it’s clear that American debt will not stop accelerating, and that America’s position in the world will not stop deteriorating, that you have ticked the Nobel Prize and was elected for a second period, maybe now it’s the time to stop acting as if you were on a never-ending election campaign, and start acting – not only talking – like a president.

Nixon will always be remembered for his Watergate scandal. Economist will remember him as the one that cancelled the gold standard – an act that started contemporary economic instability. He will also be remembered as the president who has turned America’s health care system – until then a model for rest of the world – unaffordable.

Ford … sorry Ford I can’t think of anything you will be remembered for.

Jimmy Carter is the one who led the peace process between Israel and Egypt. In my mind, he will be always linked to nuclear submarines, and peanuts.

Ronald Regan will be forever associated with the falling of the communist bloc. We must not forget the regonomics, a good idea at first glance, which now has been proven to be a slow poison for the very middle class that built America, syphoning, drop by drop, their wealth into the hands of an ever shrinking class of super-wealthy, turning them into super-wealthier.

George Bush the father will be remembered for the first Iraq war, and for his son.

Bill Clinton for Monica … and charm.

George Bush the son is the president that we all hope to forget.

And now let me guess what history will tell about you, Mr. Obama. I believe that you will be the one whose presidency will become the proof that America has lost its greatness: that it is bankrupt, not only financially, but politically, morally and spiritually. You, with high intelligence, rhetoric and good intentions, have proven that greed has become the cancer of America, and it’s gnawing through whatever is left of the body – not so long ago the envy of the entire world.

In your time, a massacre of primary school kids was not enough to increase gun control. After all, scores of politicians paid by the NRA will not push away the hand that feeds them, even if it’s a hand of a leper.

You failed to penalize those who stole the pension of tens of millions of middle class American. The best you achieved was to take more from the victims and feed it to the robbers – this time under the protection of the law. After all, a politician needs over 30,000 middle class pensioners to donate as much as single banker.

You have recognized that the health system is rotten: the US’ public health system, notorious for its third-world standard, is paid by more tax money than in nearly any other country. But it’s not an easy decision for a politician to demand taking the money from the insurers’ shareholders back into medical care. How moral can we expect a politician to be, when turning down sponsorship from insurance companies can result in losing an election?

And this is only the tip of the iceberg of big companies changing the very laws we live by to ensure the syphoning of money – from individuals and small companies – will never cease.

Mr. Obama, my guess is that you will be remembered as the president under which those who are looking at the world with eyes open will not be able to ignore any more, that America’s upward mobility is worse than in most of the free world, that total taxes are higher, that services are lower, and that from the country of the free America is turning into a scary place.

It does not have to be like this. In most developed countries elections are not sponsored by donations, and paying politicians is considered a bribe for which both the giver and the receiver will face the harsh penalties.

But Mr. Obama, it might not be too late. Now that you are not dependent on donations any longer, you have a chance to win the front battle for American freedom: separating American politics from private money.

You should call the American people to demand accountability from their politicians, forcing them to disclose who has paid them, and what laws they supported in return. You should fight for the system to change the very way it’s financed.

This is stepping away from the slope that can lead only to enslavement to ‘big money.’ If this is the only thing you achieved during your presidency, history will remember you as the president who has put America back on the path of freedom.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love this post. Yes, I feel Obama has some explaining to do. he has disappointed me and you - in ways we should be disappointed. However, the publicized criticism of him has been the opposite. The neo-right (i don't want to disrespect logical, traditional conservatives like Eisenhower) calls him a socialist by keeping for-profit health insurance companies as part of his new plan. He wasn't born here. He's Bin Laden, he's ordered FEMA to build concentration camps. He's the anti-christ.

If we were dealing with intelligent people across the aisle, I would publically criticize Obama for not getting Universal healthcare. But, we are dealing with lots of propaganda, MAJOR lobbyists like the NRA and mlilitary contractors like Lockheed Martin and Smith and Wesson and Brown and Root, and,,, Haliburton, and MANY in Congress and the Senate who would not have jobs if it wasn't for these lobby groups.

I personally feel that Obama would have been able to get more done if he didn't run into such opposition.

Case in point - Obama ordered the invasion of Lybia and to arm the rebels with AMERICAN weapons to get rid of Quadaffi. McCain and lots of the GOP criticisized him for going to war and arming rebels who may or may not be members of Al Queada or the Taliban. Now, like Lybia, the government is killing rebels. McCain and other GOPs are criticizing Obama for NOT arming the rebels (who may or may not be Al Queada or Taliban) with AMERICAN weapons.

Yes, I have my gripes about him, but I also see what he's up against, and history will too.