Mr. President: You promised change. Where is it?

Mr. President, 

I will admit to being a Liberal.  I wear the label with great pride.   I used to consider myself an independent and always registered to vote as such.  During the Clinton years I became so appalled at the behavior of the Republicans I began to identify myself as a Democrat.  I have since become so appalled at the lack of any clear direction or backbone in the Democratic Party that I am back to considering myself an independent.

It strikes me that our government was effectively been co-opted by the corporations and a small percentage of obscenely wealthy individuals.  This stealthy coup d’état was in a large engineered through the Republican Party.  

For a while I felt like the Democratic Party still vaguely had the interest of the average American in their hearts.  Somewhere along the line the DNC also became addicted to the same drug as the Republicans, big money from business and the wealthy.  The Democrats seem to have implicitly given their approval to this coup d’état.

You were not my first choice for a Democratic President, but I voted for you.  I voted hoping against hope that we might be getting a Liberal in the White House.  I would have happily settled for an old school Democrat.   I do not know what we have in the White House now.

I voted for you on your promise to close down the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.  That has not happened.  This place stands as a monument to all that was wrong with the Bush administration.  As an American the existence and concept of Guantanamo sickens and embarrasses me.  Why is it still in business?

I voted for you on your promise that we would get out of Iraq and hopefully Afghanistan.  I never understood why we were in Iraq.  I do not understand why we are still in Afghanistan.  I realize that we could not pull out of either place overnight, but it has been two years since you took office and we are still in both places .  If we are making a difference over there explain it to us.  Afghanistan is beginning to look like a new 100 year war.  It strikes me that the terrorist have won as we have wasted so much American resources, human and financial.  The benefit / cost analysis does not come out on the positve side.

I had high hopes for your Health Care initiative, initially.  What was finally passed was barely better than nothing, but not much.  Given half a chance the Republicans will wipe that out.   I have no doubt that the profit driven insurance companies will find a way to game the system.  Why are we the only major industrialized nation that so ignores the basic health needs of so many of its citizens?

Bush sold out the middle class and our grandchildren’s future with his tax cuts to the wealthy.  I had hopes that you would lead the way on fair and progressive reform.  Now you are caving even on that.   As a nation we cannot continue to push our problems off to some future date.  Where is the gumption to face these problems?  Where is the political leadership to define and push solutions?

You caved to Big Oil interest in allowing the expansion of offshore drilling.  We all know the irony that happened shortly thereafter in the Gulf.  Our nation’s energy policy does not need to be set by profit driven corporations.  It is this quarterly reporting / next election cycle mentality that has gotten and keeps us in trouble.   We need leadership planning for the long term.

Mr. President I would like to think you care about the middle and lower classes in this country.  The evidence so far does not seem to bear that out.

I grew up with a great pride and love of my nation.  I was proud to say I was an American.  I still love my country, but the  pride has all but faded.  I am not particularly proud to claim myself an American.  As a nation we do not seem to stand for much that is good and right in this troubled world.  Maybe we never have, but at least once America was a cherished dream of so many folks here and those wanting to be here.  Within my value system, it has almost taken on nightmarish qualities.

Could you just explain to us what your vision for this country is?  Could you just explain to us how you are on the side of the common man and not the elite and business interest?  Could you just explain to us why you are not a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

You promised change.  Where is it?