My Message to President Obama and the Democratic Party

Mr. President,

I know you have a lot on your plate at the moment, what with the economy cratering, North Korea threatening a nuclear strike against a U.S. target etc. But you’ve been disappointing me lately.

During your campaign you made promises to end Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, and to push gay rights forward. Thus far all we’ve seen is a Justice Department defense of DADT that was sickening. You also made promises to ‘fix’ the broken health care system we have here in the U.S.

So why now are you backpedaling and not being our champion for a public insurance program that competes with the insurance industry? Could it be you’re already starting to think about your chances for re-election? Put your mind at ease because I’m issuing not just you but the Democratic Party an ultimatum and I hope my blog followers heed my call.

The election of 2008 was the first time in my life that I gave a significant chunk of money to the primary and to the general race for president. If the demands of the people aren’t met, it will be the LAST year. Instead I’ll use the money to start a new political party. How about a party beholden only to the citizens, one where corporations don’t ride roughshod over our rights. Call it the Children of the Tea Party.

The Tea Party I reference has nothing to do with the Tea Party idiocy we’ve seen over the past few months. The main reason our predecessors burned the Gaspee and then the Boston Tea Party was because of a little thing called taxation without representation. We are in precisely that situation right now. The problem with the modern day Tea Party is that it is a thinly veiled ploy by neo-cons. Recall that neo-con Grover Norquist who famously said “I’d like to shrink the federal government down to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub”.

Instead the Tea Party I propose is one where our tax dollars are used for the greater good of the citizens in the U.S., not for misadventure in Iraq, not for big arms manufacturers, or big contract firms. No, by greater good I mean life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. To have those things health is one thing that cannot be ignored, nor can the rights of all of us. I’m talking about the Defense of Marriage Act and the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell military compromise.

Other things that I consider the greater good, how about stewardship of the environment? How about we start building the infrastructure and cars for the remainder of the 21st century, cars that run on electricity, get anywhere from 200 to 300 miles per charge, and can be recharged withing 30 minutes. I’ve already written about how you could put the charging stations at supermarkets since everyone has to shop at some point. By doing this we reduce our total demand for fossil fuels while at the same time reducing the amount of pollutants we spew into the air. I know the naysayers would harp on the fact that it might overload the electrical grid, and other arguments. So use solar and wind to generate the electricity, here in the northeast we get plenty of both sunshine and wind.

Another public good, making sure that everyone receives a quality education. What is a quality education you ask? It isn’t the No Child Left Behind Act. That was a cruel joke. Instead revise curriculum to first address linguistic barriers, then teach the kids critical thinking skills. That alone would put the U.S back in its rightful place as the beacon for knowledge and peace.

Invest money in public transit. Not token amounts, instead I’m talking massive investment. Take the trillion plus we’re spending on the military every year and end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and use the difference to fund the creation of real public transportation (Hint, not buses!)

Invest some of the money in fixing crumbling infrastructure. I know here in RI you could rebuild I-95 from the Massachusetts border through Providence. That would be a good start. Maybe even drop I-95 underground from the RI line through the state. Wouldn’t that be fantastic. It’s only 35 or so miles.

As far as foreign policy, our foreign policy would be better served if we were in fact energy self sufficient as I’ve outlined above. Now that we own a good chunk of GM lets get them to produce solar panels and wind turbines since we know they don’t know fuck all about building cars.

In short, no more money to the Democratic or Republican parties. We’ve known for years that you’ve been bought and sold many times over. It’s time for your cushy life in congress or the White House to come to an end.