Dear Mr. President:
I realize you are a busy and important man. I know you have much more pressing matters to attend to than listening to a lowly internet blogger. So to get right to the point, I offer not my own words, but those of Theodore Roosevelt: I want to see you shoot the way you shout.
Just last week, Mr. President, you poked fun at the Tea Party movement, evidenced in this quote from a story reported by ABC News reporters Karen Travers and Rachel Martin:
Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser tonight, President Obama touted his administration’s tax cuts and said that the recent tea party rallies across the nation have “amused” him.
“You would think they should be saying thank you,” the president said to applause.
Members of the audience shouted, “Thank you.”
I myself, am not a Tea Party supporter or detractor. At this point, I'm more of an interested observer. While I like the Tea Party movement's grassroots activism, I'm uneasy about the appearance of ties to Republican politicians. Once a movement marries itself to one political party, I think it ceases to be a movement of the people and becomes another tool in the political machine.
Now I'll grant you that Tea Party members sometimes make themselves easy targets for jokes. Still, I must say, Mr. President, that I'm concerned about what I see as your willingness to fall back on your powers of charm and persuasion rather than answering direct challenges presented by any segment of the American people. When you ran for office, you ran on a platform of "Change We Can Believe In." You presented yourself as a new breed of politician, one who would put the good of the country ahead of partisan politics. Many of us appreciated that stance. It felt like a breath of fresh air capable of sweeping away the cloud of partisan stench.
Unfortunately, thus far I've seen nothing more than politics as usual. Mr. President, you are a gifted and persuasive speaker. You have a natural charm and charisma that puts people at ease when you address them, whether in a large group or, presumably, one-on-one. Yet for all your talk of change and bipartisanship, your voting record in the Senate even before your election was something like 98% along party lines, more than almost any other senator. And in your administration thus far, there has been an alarming trend of poking fun at and even demonizing any detractors, regardless of whether they are politicians, members of right-leaning press or individual citizens.
This is not encouraging and it is little wonder then, that a recent survey from the Pew Research Center found that nearly 80% of Americans say "they can't trust Washington" and "have little faith that the massive federal bureaucracy can solve the nation's ills" (Quote from ynet news.com). Also interesting, is that while widely reported in international news sources, this poll result was difficult to find among American news agencies. Could it be that Americans as a whole, and our media in particular are being bullied into a position of not daring to criticize the current administration? It's a bit like junior high when no one dared to criticize the captain of the football team, even when his fly was down all during third period, for fear of the social repercussions.
In summary, Mr. President, I think you have some wonderful qualities that can make someone a strong and capable leader. But I think you have become too quick to assume the rightness of your every position and rely on those same qualities to shame your detractors rather than listen to them. This will not only lead you and your administration down a slippery slope, as some of those detractors are the same people who voted for you; it can potentially lead our country down the same slippery slope on the international stage.
So Mr. President, please, when someone challenges your position, just listen--really listen--to them. Even if they don't share your ideology, they might have a valid point. Oh, and if someone tells you your fly is down, be sure to check. You never know when they might be right.
Sincerely,
Josie Mintz
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