Dear Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations on winning a second term in office.  I hope you enjoyed your night of celebration, and I’m glad to see you getting back to work today.  I hope the rest of the country does the same. 

I voted for you enthusiastically in 2008 and, like many others, I’ve suffered a major case of Obama Buyers’ Remorse since you took office.  Yesterday, after having seriously considered not voting at all (save for my local senate race and ballot questions,) in the end I cast my vote for you.  But my vote this time represented a very different level of endorsement than that of 2008.  Honestly, it was closer to a “hold my nose and pull the lever” vote.  You’ve done a lot of good things in the past four years, but you’ve also failed miserably to live up to the promise of “hope and change” that swept you into office to begin with.  Your second term does not arrive with an overwhelming majority nor a clear mandate; in reality, I think there are lots of people like me who went to the polls specifically to vote against Romney, versus voting for you.

Tonight, Mr. President, I am viewing you much like a recalcitrant teenaged son, who has gotten into some kind of trouble.  He’s my kid; I love him, so I’ve bailed him out, but now we’re in the car, riding home, and he’s going to get a tongue-lashing.

 You know you’ve screwed up on the economy.  I don’t need to tell you that; plenty of others already have.  You need to fix it.  Spending more of my money does not constitute fixing it.  Yes, you inherited a mess from George W. Bush.  Absolutely.   And, as Bill Clinton has pointed out, no president would have been able to “fix” the economy within four years.  I get it.  But your multi-stimulus-program, wealth-redistribution spending spree is yours and yours alone.  Those are (rather, were) my dollars, dammit!  If I had wanted to invest them in some doomed-to-bankruptcy “green energy” initiative, I’d have done so without your help. 

You need to address the crisis that is our national debt.  Oh, I know, those nasty Republicans have blocked your efforts with their “no tax increases” stance.  Yes, there’s plenty of blame to lay on them as well.  If I see them in the sandbox doing that to you again, I’m going to knock their heads together.  But you know what?  They have a point.  They – and you – just need to back off from your polarized, ideological positions, and learn to play nice in that sandbox.  I agree with your stated position that we need to aim for a “balanced approach” to fixing the economy.  But a “balanced approach” is not 90% tax hikes and 10% spending cuts.  And let’s keep in mind that the accelerated pace of spending that you have put in motion needs to be throttled back before we even start talking about a “balanced approach.” You need to take aim at those way-out-of-control entitlements, and especially entitlements that are enjoyed by people with no earthly, justifiable right to be “entitled” to anything. 

You need to finish what you’ve started, and get the rest of our troops back home from places they never should have been, and out of harm’s way.  Kudos to you for hunting down Bin Laden, and for the progress you’ve made toward withdrawal, but you should have finished long ago.  Someone will almost assuredly die in service to our country in some god-forsaken middle eastern country that doesn’t want us there to begin with, whether tomorrow, next week, or next month; and there’s just no excuse for that.  Bring them home now.

 You need to refine, repackage, and sell Obamacare.  Seldom have I seen such a fundamentally good idea be so badly miscommunicated and thus so wildly unpopular.  You need to simplify the Affordable Care Act.  Contrary to Mitt Romney’s wildly exaggerated claim that it runs to 2400 pages, it does encompass 906 (not that I claim to have read it.)  It doesn’t need to be that complex.  You need to be able to explain to people that insurance is, pure and simple, a risk sharing mechanism.  The more broadly you spread the risk, the more affordable the insurance becomes.  This is true for any property, casualty, life, or health insurance program, and I speak with some authority here, having spent 30 years in the insurance industry.  Mandatory insurance is not Socialism.  It is not unconstitutional.  Nobody balks at the notion of mandatory automobile liability insurance for individuals, or Workers’ Compensation insurance for businesses.  Those are understood.  Obamacare, for whatever reason, is not.  You need to fix that, or you’ll be wasting time, energy, and (my) money defending / refining / arguing its finer points for the next four years.

You need to deal with immigration.  Not band-aid, finger-in-the-dyke “Dream Act” amnesty measures, but reasoned, rational, broad-based, and enforceable immigration reform.  You need to understand that many Americans are offended by the notion that we extend benefits, driving privileges, public education, all manner of taxpayer-funded services to people who have no right whatsoever to be in this country.  We cannot afford to continue down that path.  I already hear the howls of protest: “But we’re a nation of immigrants; my {father/grandmother/whatever} came here from {wherever}. ”  True.  Mine did too.  But they did so without benefit of handouts.  They learned our language.  They worked like dogs at any job they could find.  They obtained “sponsors.”  They followed the rules of the times.  They studied for the exam and became citizens.  They were responsible.  They contributed.  “But the rules are unreasonable.”  Ah, now there’s a valid argument.  They absolutely are.  Country-specific waiting lists are out of control.  The whole crazy-quilt system of visas, green cards, “diversity lotteries” and what-have-you is broken.  We lack a coherent immigration policy.  THAT is the problem to be solved.  You’re up.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you need to cease and desist from your divisive, “us vs. them” class rhetoric.   It’s extraordinarily ironic that a president who claims to be a “uniter, not a divider” has, in four years, cleaved a chasm between the self-perceived “haves” and “have-nots” in our society.  Your unrelenting rhetoric about “millionaires paying their share” has drawn battle lines between groups of people who, most likely, would otherwise not have even regarded themselves as groups.  Look in the mirror – you’ll see a millionaire staring back.  You (as well as Mr. Romney, and all of your followers and handlers) have played fast and loose with terminology.  Who, exactly, is the “middle class” in your world view?  Whoever they (we) are, they are going to be screwed if you and your Republican colleagues in the legislative branch fail to reach an actionable compromise to address the looming “fiscal cliff.”

Your work is cut out for you, Mr. President.  You have the intellect, the character, and the compassion to get the job done.  You need to harness all of these, put aside your ego, and work with others – any and all others who can help you – to make that happen.  I believe the country is ready to rally behind you. 

I wish you the best of luck.