Betrayal and a Cooked Goose

Dear Mr. President,

I may be wrong but I think your goose is cooked this November. I read today where the young people, the 18 to 24-year-olds who were so important in getting you elected in 2008, are not there this time. As one college student put it, politics is “Pointless.” They see your betrayals and they’ve lost faith in you and in their government. A lot of us have. We all know politicians lie, it’s one of the job requirements, but your whoppers were on a scale not seen in my lifetime and the disillusion that set in as the country continued on its downward spiral is breathtaking. You promised to end war and heal a country deeply wounded, but on election eve you abandoned it all and turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the not-rich and not-powerful. January 21, 2009 was business as usual, another smooth transition, another smooth betrayal of America. The kids, along with the rest of us, see a shrinking middle class, a vanishing democracy and a dysfunctional government. We see immoral war without end, the violation of American values, the Constitution and moral decency. We see hypocrisy, backroom deals and a ruling elite who cares not a fig for the common man. How can you blame 18-24 year-olds – and the rest of us – for abandoning you as you abandoned us? The excitement’s not there this time. There’s little to be excited about. On the one hand we have Mitt who, like the Supreme Court, thinks corporations are people, my friend, and on the other hand you, the master of the con, the flim-flam man, the wolf in sheep’s clothing. You’re in trouble with the young and a lot of us who aren’t so young and I’m thinking the only thing that might take you over the top is fear of Mitt in The White House. (But didn’t FDR say the only thing we have to fear is fear itself?) Personally, I wouldn’t vote for you for dog catcher, Mr. President. It would be immoral to vote for a war criminal and cold-blooded assassin. It would make me complicit in your criminal activity and I want nothing to do with that. I can’t vote for Mitt either, so it doesn’t leave much out there for me just like it doesn’t leave much for anyone. As that 19 year old student said: “I see lies and I hear lies … and I don’t believe anything. I think the party system is stupid.” Too true. The only thing I would add is that the party system isn’t so much stupid as indistinguishable. Both pander to the 1% and screw the 99%. It’s only a difference of degree. Although,you’re probably the more effective evil.