http://cnx.com/?p=1308Dear Lou Pritchett:
I have met or listened to literally thousands of people who dislike President Obama. You are not unique in that matter; I myself take exception with a fair number of his decisions, although probably not the same ones you do. But unlike many of the people critical of the President, you scare me.
You scare me because you say that after months of exposure, you know nothing about President Obama. Yet later on in your letter you claim knowledge of intimate matters of his personal life. What this suggests to me is that you are being willfully ignorant about who President Obama is and what he stands for, only taking your “information” from very slanted sources.
You scare me because you claim to not know how the President paid for his college education or the homes he lived in. He paid for his education the same way most people do nowadays: with grants and loans. His secondary education records were enough to get him into some of the best schools in the country, and he earned his way through them. You claim to have lived through thirteen Presidents, but don’t seem disturbed to not know how at least two of those Presidents, Harry Truman and Richard Nixon, paid for their education or their lifestyles. Both of them were born dirt poor, even poorer than Obama was growing up, and you don’t seem to raise the same question about their educational finances that you do Obama’s. This suggests an ulterior motive in your questioning.
You scare me because you think that spending some of your formative years in other countries is a bad thing. This reinforces an insular view that everything about America is perfect and everything about other cultures is evil. Yes, America is without a doubt the greatest country on Earth right now and one of the greatest cultures of all time, but not everything we do is perfect. There is a lot to learn from other nations, some of it in what they do better than us and some from their bad examples.
You scare be because by saying that Obama never ran a business or met a payroll, he is unqualified to be President. Business owners are not uniquely qualified to be in government, and in many ways they are hampered by it. You see, government is not a business and can’t be run like one. There is more at stake than a monetary bottom line, which is the case in business. There also are occasions when you can’t afford to balance your budget as you would have to in business, in order to help rebuild a flagging economy. Even Ronald Reagan knew that; his entire economic success (such as it was) was built on shoring up a dying industrial base with huge military spending. Let’s also not forget that of the thirteen Presidents you claim to have lived under, businessmen are very much in the minority. Neither Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, nor Clinton ever had to meet a payroll. Truman was a failed entrepreneur, yet was unquestionably one of our most able Presidents. Jimmy Carter made his family’s failing farm thrive when he took it over. George W. Bush oversaw many businesses that ended up failing. I doubt you will argue with my claim that these three businessmen who went on to be President shows that there is no corollary between business acumen and success in government.
You scare me because you believe that military service is necessary to be a successful President. Roosevelt did not serve in the military, but successfully led the nation into World War II as Commander in Chief. Reagan also did not serve in the military. Even if you dislike Clinton, which I imagine you do since your entire letter is full of right-wing talking points, also remember that George W. Bush didn’t serve in combat, and skipped out on his National Guard enlistment. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter served in the Navy with distinction in World War II. So, again, there is no corollary.
You scare me because you believe that holding others accountable for their misdeeds is a sign of lacking “class.”
You scare me because you consider people who fought to end an unjust war to be people “wanting America to fail.”
You scare me because you claim that Obama is trying to replace our current system with a Western European one, which he isn’t. And worst of all, you have no knowledge about Western European systems and how they work. Western Europe has a better education rate, lower infant mortality, and a higher satisfaction index than we do here in America. Maybe we could learn a thing or two from what they do, but you are too mired in the “America good, everything else evil” mentality that you used to criticize Obama’s life overseas.
You scare me because you believe our current health system works. You also scare me because you don’t recognize that the real failing in the President’s health care plan is that it DOESN’T replace our current system with something that works, or at least give us the option of a publicly-run program.
You scare me because you willfully ignore all of the President’s statements and actions on offshore drilling and clean coal, and because you obviously don’t want to pursue renewable energy technologies, which we will need sooner or later because fossil fuels are finite resources. The quicker we start putting replacement energy sources into place, the better off we will be when we run out of oil and coal.
You scare me because you have no clue about where our standard of life is in relation to the rest of the world, and also because you endorse the deregulation of capitalist businesses that thrive off of the boom-bust cycle which hurts and even kills millions of low-income workers.
You scare me because you consider regulation to be extortion.
You scare me because you criticize the President’s spending proposals, but had no problem with George W. Bush tripling the national debt while driving us into the worst economic decline since the Great Depression.
You scare me because you ignore all of the times the President has sought advice and recommendations from all interested parties, yet was rebuffed by an opposition party whose sole tactic is to block anything and everything.
You scare me because you believe that the media has given Obama a “free pass,” when the coverage of his administration has been some of the toughest in history.
You scare me because you are buying into the whole “silence the opposition” claim, which is patently false. Not only has the President not made any move to silence the conservative-dominated media, but he opposes reintroducing the Fairness Doctrine and the White House has even given Fox News (which feels more compelled to forward right-wing talking points than actual journalism) a front row seat in the briefing room.
You scare me because you obviously have no idea of the difference between governing and controlling. Or regulation and control, for that matter.
Finally, you say that after eight years of an Obama Administration you wouldn’t feel secure writing the letter I am responding to, yet you have no problem voting for administrations that actually have infringed upon our personal rights, our privacy, and our personal security. That says all I need to know about you.
And I am especially scared by the fact that there are millions of others like you, willfully and blissfully ignorant, who will happily join with you in destroying all that is good about America in the name of “saving” it.
Yours,
Pab Sungenis.
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