Goodbye, Mr. Obama

Goodbye, Mr. Obama.

You are not the first President of the United States that I am happy to see leave office — but you are the first that I refuse to call “my” President. During seven years in office you’ve deftly managed to do the unimaginable. You have purposely represented about a third of the people in this nation, and you have done so boldly with no apologies. This talk-to-the-hand, elections-have-consequences attitude is unforgivable in my book. You were elected to be the President of the United States, not the cheerleader in chief for the left wing of the Democrat Party.

For seven years you have shown open distain for this nation’s history and traditions. At the same time, you have missed few opportunities to praise European socialism and reinforce enduring old third-world jealousies.

Rather than bring the many races and factions of this nation together, you have fanned the flames of discontent. With an activist’s appeal honed in the neighborhoods of Chicago, your stock in trade has been class warfare and racial divisiveness. The welfare of the nation is not as important as the future of the party — and in your perspective, the party thrives on chaos and the pitting of one group against another.

The citizens of this country (65 % according the final pole before it passed) did not want a federally managed health care system cooked up in late-night, closed-door, single-party sessions. Their wishes didn’t matter. We are now saddled with an expensive and failing system that the majority in the country still do not support.

International respect, and more importantly, international confidence in the United States, has suffered during your reign. You have insistently blamed America for real and imagined evils in the world — all the while downplaying the racial, cultural and religious genocide taking place in the Middle East and North Africa. Our dwindling allies no longer know where our loyalties lay.

Progressive opportunism and unashamed pandering might be the way politics are done in your circle of friends and advisors, but it is unseemly behavior for the President of the free world.

It is virtually certain that you and your 37% of supporters will call me a racist for saying publicly that you are not “my” President. It’s just another symptom of the same narrow-focus that has plagued your entire administration. The truth is, I could care less if your skin color was green. You are not my President because you have never made a feeble attempt to be my President.

I suppose you have refused to represent me because I stand for many of the things you rail against! A middle class family man in fly-over country who pays his own bills, owns a gun, goes to church, and loves the traditions and freedoms of this great nation. For progressive elites, it doesn’t get any scarier than that. In your mind I am the problem — if not the outright enemy. The only reason I don’t feel marginalized by your unabashed profiling is that there are millions out here just like me. We are hoping to find a president with ALL of our best interests at heart.

For the record, I’ve disagreed politically with several men who were still “my” President during their terms. Even Jimmy Carter, who until recently I thought to be the worst President ever, tried his best to be my President. In spite of a mismanaged economy and a disastrous foreign policy, President Carter never forgot that the half of the country who voted for someone else were still members of his own sacred base.

I honor Jimmy Carter’s service in the silent Navy prior to his political career, and I applaud his active support of worthwhile causes since leaving public office. The gentleman from Georgia did not enjoy my vote, but he continues to earn my respect. Business in the Oval Office was conducted with dignity and grace, and his many years since have been the model for a senior statesmen.

(Side note: Watching this respected statesman sit next to a national embarrassment named Michael Moore at a recent convention, slapping backs and making jokes, made me seriously consider a Carter reassessment. But in the end I have to give benefit of the doubt to this proud American son.)

Bill Clinton did not enjoy my vote either, but he was still “my” President. As long as he agreed to leave the interns back at the office, I’d stand a pint and swap stories with Bubba anytime. He always managed to come across as a fun, loving — if not particularly dependable — old college buddy.

As a veteran who volunteered during the draft, I have a hard time forgiving this man for his Canadian-slink to avoid military service. But, in an honest retrospect of his eight years, President Clinton did make several important concessions (welfare reform etc.) that benefited the nation. He enjoyed taking credit for an economic boom that wasn’t of his own making, but he at least had the common sense to stay out of the way and not interfere with an expanding economy by raising taxes or dramatically increasing social spending.

Military readiness suffered (in some cases significantly) under this self-absorbed leader, but other than the honor of the office itself, the country survived and prospered. I believe that Bill Clinton understood that he was the President of the nation, not the President of his political party. I just wish the other governor from Little Rock would find some of Bubba’s lost political magic.

The long and short of it is, my family and I have not been represented by a President for seven years. I sincerely hope that changes next year. In light of Hillary’s “I’m proud that Republicans are my enemies” comment, that hope would apparently require a conservative victory in 2016.

It’s more than “just politics.” There was an act of abject savagery in California late last year, precipitated by the same rabid cult that killed more than a hundred innocent souls in France a few weeks earlier. This was proof-positive that evil slithers in our grass too. The entire country was in shock and mourning.

Rather than comfort the nation or condemn the animals spreading this cancer in the world, your heartfelt response was to once again call for my disarmament. What is the matter with you? You knew when you made that bully-pulpit gun control pitch that the most stringent gun laws in the country would not have prevented this tragedy. But once again you held the poison microphone. Why not frighten the uninformed and make a little political hay.

This particular time it didn’t work out so well. Even the families of the victims slammed you for being disingenuous. Honestly, this blame America first nonsense is getting ridiculous — and it is as predictable as left-wing bias in the mainstream press. Speaking of media bias, this might well have been the Christmas headline in the New York Times:

“The NRA lobby forces an assault rifle into the hands of a San Bernardino family man and who lost his mind when someone at a holiday party rudely said Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. The alleged Muslim man was under severe stress because the air conditioning had gone out in his apartment. It has since been determined that the air conditioning failed due to Republican sanctioned climate change. Definitive ownership of several pipe bombs found at the scene has not been determined, but a Zionist plot to discredit followers of the one true prophet has not been ruled out.” A personal question or two for the politician-in-chief who decided not to be my President. I’m not sure what circumstance in your life made you hate me so much. What exactly is my greatest sin in your ledger? Is it the pallor of my skin? Is it my Christian faith? Is it my belief in the sanctity of human life, or paying reverence to my maker as my family and I celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas? Maybe it’s the afternoons I’ve spent at the shooting range with my son, or the gas-guzzling SUV that I drive. Whatever it is, it’s time for you to shake it off. Let it go, and quit worrying about me.

Enjoy the sunset, Mr. Obama, and all the Hawaiian golf you can handle. Take those beautiful daughters on a few “privately funded” vacations before they grow up and leave you — but please don’t interfere with government ever again. You’re leaving behind an entire army of progressive drones and their fan-club the media. They can still do plenty of damage without you.

Ex-President statesman status isn’t all bad. I heard that Al Gore was looking for someone to carry his carbon counting abacus. Might be a good match. You get to continue traveling around in a private jet that someone else is paying for, surrounded by fawning bobble heads wearing reporter credentials. You probably won’t have a chance to bow to world leaders, but I’m sure that Mike Brune, head propagandist over at the Sierra Club, would let you to kiss his ring if you really had the urge. Maybe the best reason for joining the Gore team would be that it would give you a chance to protest the pipeline that the evil oil companies will build as soon as you’re out of office. Anyway, think about it.

You promised change, and to your credit you delivered. I will never again take civilized politics for granted, nor will I ever again assume the guarantees in my constitution to be unassailable. My new direction in life is to make sure my grandchildren understand how truly blessed this great nation of ours is, and that this blessing comes at a price. It requires love of country, vigilance, and citizen participation. My grandchildren need to understand that we have a sacred responsibility to preserve and protect this grand 240-year-old experiment in self-governance and pass it to future generations free of bureaucratic overbearance and crushing national debt.

It’s 2016. Time for the nation to find a world leader with experience and conviction to finish out the second decade in this new century. It would be nice to find someone who actually likes this country.