An open letter to Barack Obama
November 12th 2008 00:32
Dear Mr Obama,
On behalf of fair-minded people everywhere, congratulations on your victory. Whatever luck there is in politics and fate, we wish you the best of it in the years to come.
Right now, however, we have a question, and we think there is no bigger question around. It is this: are you going to deliver?
We are tired, Mr Obama, of political leaders who don't deliver. Yes we are. We are tired of fresh faces and talent promising change and grassroots concern and economic prudence and social justice and the ability to make tough decisions - and failing to deliver on any of it.
We are concerned that you will be another leader who puts opinion polls first and people second. We are tired of such politicians Mr Obama, yes we are.
How many times must the people be fooled? We believe the fine speeches; we cheer and we dare to believe in a brighter, fairer future. And then we get one broken promise after another.
Forgive the doubt, Mr Obama, but the US budget deficit is running at $438 billion for 2008, yes it is. And it is looking likely to grow as the slowing economy cuts tax revenue and increases the need for bailout spending. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates your proposals would reduce projected tax revenue by $2.95 trillion over the next decade.
Your finely-worded and rousingly presented proposals won you the election. Were they promises aimed at getting you to the White House, or were they promises for a better future? Do you have a plan to balance the books, Mr Obama, or will you, like pretty much everyone before you, fall back on the defence of multisyllabic obfuscation?
You, Mr Obama, have a chance to do things differently. Don't just play it safe. Deliver the promised change. Make the hard, at times unpopular decisions, the risky decisions, without which we just continue to muddle along in our world full of inequality and injustice and politicians who do little about it.
Be a servant of the people, Mr Obama, not opinion polls about your own popularity. Those things tell you the best time to start a war. They don't tell you about the basic, pragmatic, unsexy issues that the world needs addressing, and they don't count broken promises.
You can deliver these things, Mr Obama. Yes you can.
Signed,
Planet Earth
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Comment by RubySoho
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Comment by David Edwards
Bush didn't bother with that. He caused enough confusion with monosyllabic words.
Comment by Chris Champion
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David, is it true that Dubbya had so much trouble with his three-syllable middle initial that they invented a two-syllable way of saying it?