Dear President Obama

Dear Mr. President,

I will not be voting for you this November, just as I didn’t in 2008. While in 2008, I merely had hunches about why I didn’t want you to be the president of the U.S. mostly due to your lack of past leadership experience and voting record; now I have been witness to your presidency and know why I do not want you leading this country for another four years.

Back in 2008, you promised to unite Americans across cultural, ethnic and ideological divides. Our country is more divided than ever as you have pitted the haves and the have-nots against one another. Your theory of taking more from the top to give to the bottom simply doesn’t work. Lowering the top rung on the ladder of success will not remedy the job crisis in this country, raising the lowest rung will.  You promised us shovel ready jobs that turned out to be in your words: “not as … uh .. shovel-ready as we expected”. Also, printing money in another “stimulus” will not turn this economy around but it will bury generations to come in even more debt. You have avoided making the hard decisions regarding the federal budget, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. You continue to kick the can down the road, while trying to convince a nation, that overwhelmingly does NOT want Obamacare, that another massive social program will solve this nation’s ills.

For the entirety of your presidency, you have blamed others for your inability to move the U.S. forward toward recovery. I’m only 47 but I do not recall another president in my lifetime spending so much time meting out blame to past presidents, the public’s lack of understanding your plans, a tsunami, the Euro, the list is very long. The Democrat party had control of both the House and Senate during your first two years in office, but you still didn’t pass a budget. You barely introduced one before the leaders of your own party dismissed it.

You have told us we “didn’t build that”. Denigrating success is not the American way. What’s that you say? That’s not what you meant? Well, Mr. Romney didn’t mean that he loathes 47% of Americans but he has to own that so don’t you need to own this remark? At any rate, I look to a president who celebrates America’s ingenuity and our success stories; not one that apologizes for them.

Mr. President you told us you would restore America’s image across the world. You have scorned our allies and led our enemies to believe we will give them a pass. You pulled all American personnel out of Iraq, leaving no one behind. Your stubbornness in sticking to the symbolism of the U.S. leaving Iraq, will lead to us losing the peace, such as it was and once again abandoning Iraq in turmoil. You have given a date of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Why not just pack up and get everyone out tomorrow? The Taliban is simply waiting for us to leave. And wasn’t Afghanistan the “good war” according to you? Aren’t you the Commander-in-Chief who sent in more troops in a “surge” and then decided to tell the enemy when we will surge back out? The Middle East is burning with anti-American rage which has nothing to do with a silly video. They hate us and now they don’t fear us and that has resulted in the death of four Americans, including our ambassador to Libya who was “protected” by guards without live ammunition and your state department was warned of an imminent attack days before it occurred and nothing was changed to protect the people inside the embassy.

Your courage in standing up for religious freedoms ends with the Catholic Church and other organizations who morally disagree with funding abortion or birth control. While I don’t agree with the stances of these organizations, I fully support their right to spend their money as they see fit. It is easier to refuse the religious freedoms of the Catholic Church than it is to speak up against Muslim extremists, isn’t it? You are pretty safe in the knowledge that a bunch of Catholics will not storm government buildings, vandalizing property and attacking people within.

I cannot support your allegiance to teachers unions. As a parent of children who attend public schools, I have seen firsthand for years how these unions have subjugated the requirements of excellent education in this country to their interest in guaranteed jobs, benefits and retirements. Please note, I am not saying that teachers are over-compensated. I simply wish that the best teachers were rewarded and the worst were let go. The stance that you and the unions embrace is untenable in reality; as the nation and your former chief of staff and current mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, are finding out. Our local, state and federal economies cannot afford to keep up with union demands. And who is losing that battle? The children of public school systems around the nation.

For these reasons and many more but I have droned on (get it drones!? haha) long enough.  I will write to Mr. Romney to explain to him why he is getting my vote.

Sincerely,

Maggie at Someone Fat Happened