Dear Mr. President

Sunday, June 02, 2013

Dear Mr. President:

I won't be able to attend your next press conference; however, I do have a rather serious question for you.

As you know, on May 21st, the Senate voted to block an  amendment to reinstate $4.1 billion for food stamps. I found this bit of data to be amazing. When I then saw  that 28 Democratic United States Senators, including individuals like Senators Feinstein, Franken, Hagan, Harkin, Klobuchar, McCaskill, and others, voted with the Republicans, I was stunned!

The question is simple. If feeding children, who are far and away the primary beneficiaries of the Food Stamp Program, is not a democratic boiler plate issue, what is? And if it is, why do you suppose these democrats voted against this amendment? What makes these individuals Democrats?

Votes like these are nothing but politics as usual. There can be no special interests when it comes to Democracy. The issues are morally clear as glass. The Common good and the General Welfare are the bed rock of government of for and by the people. No program that benefits one section of the people at the cost of another is sustainable. If a program does not serve the Common Good, it simply is not good for anyone. Good can come only from good. What's so hard about that?

I really think it is time to clean up the party, to expect democrats to be democrats. I am quite familiar with all the "complexity" of what one has to do to stay in office. The lessons of our long history are very clear on this issue. It is clear that when staying in office or, as President's Lincoln and Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy and Dr. Martin L. King, and countless other heroes down the annals of time remind us, even staying alive is more important than supporting the Common Good and the General Welfare, Humanity is going to lose, and lose again.

I do not see you as individually or personally responsible for this situation, and I do see you as making incredible efforts to improve the system. I think that there are enough conscious people in our country now that changing the conversation from the details of various programs to a discussion of the principles of democratic government would be a very powerful thing to do, and would help a lot to generate the kind of support you need. It would shift the focus of the discussion from effects to causes. It would put light on the motivation behind the programs of division and greed that are so destructive. And, as you know, light and revelation are cause and effect.

Now that we have world around, practically instant, communication with each other, sophistry is not as effective as it was. In fact sophistry, or spinning as we  say, is becoming painfully obvious. There is nothing that makes it so obvious as a clear plain message about the meaning and significance of the basic values upon which our government stands. The new generations get this. They are ready for it.

I'm just saying.

lots of love

-tom