Too Soon to Celebrate

Dear Mr. President,

It looks like you’ve successfully squelched the great leak scandal. I’ve been looking for a mention of the leaks or drone wars or kill lists and nothing. The New York Times. CNN. BBC. Al Jazeera. Nothing. Only one editorial in the local paper this morning about “the real story” being your manipulation of secrecy laws, Well, you do do that but that’s still not the real story. The real story is your war crimes, your lawlessness and your gutting of the Constitution. Your PR folks are very effective however, and the stories they planted about your cyber-war with Iran and your drone wars, according to the editorial, actually enhanced your image generally. Mission Accomplished! But I’m not so sure and I wouldn’t start celebrating yet, Mr. President, because I think you’re in trouble come November. Granted, I’m just one guy in one place, but everyone I talk to—especially the young–says they aren’t voting for you. They’re not voting for Romney either, but definitely not for you. What they see are politicians who don’t give a damn about ordinary citizens—the 99%—just the rich Banksters and Wall Street tycoons who can fill their pockets with the almighty dollar. They see a double standard of justice on everything from leakers and whistleblowers to bailouts and tax cuts for millionaires, and nothing for them but a bleak future. As far as they’re concerned, they’d be better off with no government than the one they’ve got. That’s why a frightening number are tilting Libertarian. Both Democrats and Republicans look pretty much alike to them and it’s true, there’s not a dime’s worth of difference except vocabulary. It’s tempting to think of no government but the problem isn’t government per se; it’s government the way it’s been corrupted plus the deflation and disillusion that followed from your lies and false promises. It didn’t take long for you to shed the skin of populism and assume the mantle of imperial royalty, or for the heady taste of power—at last!—to crowd out reason with a belief in your own godlike infallibility. Your lies and hubris, your merciless and macabre Targeted Assassinations Program and your personal selection of every victim doesn’t make you an American hero or an American Rambo, Mr. President, it shows you as a cold-blooded killer without conscience, without morality, without Hope. What have we done to deserve you? Duped by your smooth lies and slick deception, we voted for you once, but God help us if we vote for you again.