I was born to European immigrants who always voted Democrat.
My parents always voted Democrat, because of FDR, who defeated Hitler and granted my mother and her first husband a special visa to enter this country.
I have always voted Democrat. I voted for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton twice and believed that Clinton completely reflected my beliefs. When stories came out about his infidelities, I blamed his behavior on his difficult childhood - never knowing who his father really was and having to deal with an alcoholic step father. I easily forgave him his trespasses.
When George Bush succeeded him, I hoped that he would do well because our country depended on it. I was terribly disappointed. I couldn’t believe that we had invaded Iraq and feared his tax cuts for the rich would cripple our economy. My worst fears were realized.
I was so relieved to see a young senator from Illinois become our next president. He seemed very pragmatic and centrist. I disregarded claims that he was against white Americans or that he had some hidden agenda.
He promised to get us out of the Middle East and to bring about healthcare reform. He promised to make healthcare coverage affordable and voluntary. He wanted to have a public option to complement or compete with private carriers who would no longer reject applicants for preconditions. He promised to unite us saying that there was not a red America or a blue one. We would be one nation, indivisible.
We did get a healthcare reform but it was not the one he wanted or promised. Americans without coverage would be forced to get it or face financial penalties. Healthy Americans were needed to offset the cost of unhealthy ones, we were told. Those who could not pay would be subsidized by the government. This was not what he wanted but was persuaded by the House leadership under Nancy Pelosi that this was the only way.
He was facing an economic collapse and took steps to save the banks and two of our car companies. He helped the private sector create jobs that were lost during the crisis.
He got us out of Iraq as promised and made plans to get the Afghans to take over protecting their country from radical Muslims called the Taliban. He made it clear that this was not anything against Islam, a religion dedicated to peace.
He had appointed his former Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady, to be Secretary of State in 2009. She promised to reset our frosty relationship with Russia and to champion human rights, especially in the Middle East where women and minorities were being subjugated. Encouraged by the fall of Iraq’s strongman and then by the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, she promoted efforts in Egypt, Yemen and Syria to overthrow their longtime dictators. What followed was the destabilization of Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Syria. This chaos gave rise to radical Islamists known as Al Qaeda and later ISIS in this area.
The president declined to call this an Islamic-based radicalism not wanting anyone to think that there was any relationship between the religion and violence.
He promised to close Gitmo and did much to reduce the population there but was prevented from moving the remaining prisoners to available American prisons. Those who remain there are costing an estimated $10 million a year each.
The Affordable Care Act was neither affordable for the middle class nor did it provide care until the premiums and the deductibles were met. Sometimes this meant that in addition to paying $6,000 a year for the insurance, there was a deductible of as much as $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning that this was not coverage but rather insurance for any cost above the combined annual cost. Private insurers were dropping out because they were losing money. They became aware that one unhealthy patient could cost as much as 50 or 100 healthy ones. There would be no way to have the healthy ones make up the difference.
The president, his health secretary and his minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, were advised that there was an easy way to fix this deteriorating situation. They could make enrollment voluntary and allow private insurers to reject any applicant for medical or financial reasons. Those rejected would be immediately eligible to the public option which would be 100% federally funded. Those denied for medical reasons would have a share of cost but no deductible and those denied for financial reasons would have no share of cost and no deductibles. This then would be affordable health coverage as opposed to unaffordable health insurance.
He and his people rejected all solutions and insisted on pressing on no matter what.
The president failed to unite the nation when he repeatedly took the side of black Americans. When a Harvard professor was seemingly mistreated by a Cambridge, Mass. police sergeant, Mr. Obama sided with the professor before knowing the whole story. When a young high school football player was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the president sided with the young man saying that it could have been him as a young man or his son had he had one. It turned out that the young man was killed to stop him from beating the volunteer to death because the man had asked him what he was doing in the gated community. A jury that included six mothers found the accused innocent because he killed in self defense. The Attorney General promised a full investigation and found that from day one it was obviously a case of self defense. The shooter, though innocent, is still considered a pariah by the unthinking public.
When a police officer shot and killed a former high school football player, the president again sided with the young man who was killed. It turned out that he too was killed in self defense and did not have his hands up when he was shot. He was trying to kill the officer who stopped him for having committed a strong-arm robbery minutes before. The president did not intervene and the town rioted for more than four months.
Whenever cases like these came up, it seemed that President Obama sided with the assailant rather than the police who risk their lives daily to protect us. It happened again in Staten Island when a six foot five inch 400 pound man with severe heart, kidney and diabetes problems resisted his 30th arrest. He died of a heart attack while police tried to arrest him. When the mayor of New York came out against the grand jury findings that the police were not at fault, the president sided with the mayor. Days later a person killed two New York police officers feeling justified because even the mayor was against the police.
It happened again in Baltimore when a young drug dealer reacted to his 20th arrest of the year and hit his head accidentally while being transported to jail. The mayor of that city immediately decided that the police were guilty and awarded the young man’s destitute mother $6.5 million before the case went to trial. It turned out that none of the six cops were found guilty. The rioters broke into pharmacies and stole drugs that could be sold on the street. In the next six weeks there were 56 homicides. All but one victim and one killer were black. That year there was a record number of homicides almost all affecting black victims.
But this past year, the president really went off track. He decided to enter the presidential race to promote his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton, his former opponent turned secretary of state. Unlike any president before him, along with his wife, Michelle, and his Vice President, Joe Biden, he went on the campaign trail for her, presumably using taxpayer money for the tremendous expense it entailed. No other sitting president in memory campaigned for his successor. Truman did not campaign for Stevenson. The very popular Ike did not do it for his own vice president, Nixon. Reagan did not do it for his V.P. Bush. Clinton did not campaign for his V.P., Gore. Young Bush did not campaign for Romney.
The president insisted that Hillary was the best prepared to be president, more than anyone ever was. He forgot that Bush Sr. had been Vice President for eight years, head of the CIA, a congressman and a war hero. He forgot that Nixon had been a V.P. for eight years, a congressman and naval officer. How well did they do?
The president promised that Mr. Trump would never be president. He then had to eat his words. When a minority of Americans tried to undo the results of the election, he did not step up and tell them that what they were doing was un-American and was an assault on our democratic system. As a result, some Americans felt encouraged to do whatever they could to overthrow the results.
The president told us that our country was created and made great by diversity. He perhaps forgot that the founding fathers, every president before him except one, and almost every legislator was a white Protestant. This is clearly a white Protestant nation. Diversity is fine but it did not make this country what it is today, for better or worse. He neglected to consider this obvious fact because it appears that he wanted to change our culture to make it less white and less Christian. He refrained from wishing us Merry Christmas for fear offending the few who might take offense by it.
He had tried to reduce the number of immigrants who came to the country illegally until a few years ago when those on the left decried it. He then allowed and encouraged hundreds of thousands of interlopers from Central America to enter the country unimpeded and to disperse into the American countryside with hopes of future citizenship.
And just this past week, he gave Israel, our country’s greatest ally and the homeland for the world’s most besieged people, a knife in the back by instructing his U.N. representative to not veto a resolution that every other president had. It gave false legitimacy to the Paletine region by declaring that its sovereignty had been violated by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The residents of this region had never had self rule or national status. They had been part of Jordan until the Arab states invaded Israel in 1967 in an attempt to destroy the new nation that was established by the U.N. Israel was victorious humiliating the many Arab states and took back the Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank for security reasons.
In an effort to promote peace in the region, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and later deserted its settlements in Gaza giving its residents autonomy. The people of Gaza reacted by putting in power Hamas, a terrorist organizations that vowed to drive Israel into the sea. The terrorists sent 20,000 rockets into Israel as a thank you note. Knowing this, President Obama still seemed to side with the Arabs against Israel.
The President now has one last choice to make. He can fully endorse his successor, encourage his fellow Americans to do likewise and show his solidarity by attending the inauguration on January 20th.
He would be well to realize that people remember the end more than the beginning. He should do whatever he can in his last few weeks in office to help us remember him well. He owes it to all us who believed in him and wished him great success. He owes it to simple decency.
I hope he does the right thing in the end.
My parents always voted Democrat, because of FDR, who defeated Hitler and granted my mother and her first husband a special visa to enter this country.
I have always voted Democrat. I voted for Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton twice and believed that Clinton completely reflected my beliefs. When stories came out about his infidelities, I blamed his behavior on his difficult childhood - never knowing who his father really was and having to deal with an alcoholic step father. I easily forgave him his trespasses.
When George Bush succeeded him, I hoped that he would do well because our country depended on it. I was terribly disappointed. I couldn’t believe that we had invaded Iraq and feared his tax cuts for the rich would cripple our economy. My worst fears were realized.
I was so relieved to see a young senator from Illinois become our next president. He seemed very pragmatic and centrist. I disregarded claims that he was against white Americans or that he had some hidden agenda.
He promised to get us out of the Middle East and to bring about healthcare reform. He promised to make healthcare coverage affordable and voluntary. He wanted to have a public option to complement or compete with private carriers who would no longer reject applicants for preconditions. He promised to unite us saying that there was not a red America or a blue one. We would be one nation, indivisible.
We did get a healthcare reform but it was not the one he wanted or promised. Americans without coverage would be forced to get it or face financial penalties. Healthy Americans were needed to offset the cost of unhealthy ones, we were told. Those who could not pay would be subsidized by the government. This was not what he wanted but was persuaded by the House leadership under Nancy Pelosi that this was the only way.
He was facing an economic collapse and took steps to save the banks and two of our car companies. He helped the private sector create jobs that were lost during the crisis.
He got us out of Iraq as promised and made plans to get the Afghans to take over protecting their country from radical Muslims called the Taliban. He made it clear that this was not anything against Islam, a religion dedicated to peace.
He had appointed his former Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, a former First Lady, to be Secretary of State in 2009. She promised to reset our frosty relationship with Russia and to champion human rights, especially in the Middle East where women and minorities were being subjugated. Encouraged by the fall of Iraq’s strongman and then by the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator, she promoted efforts in Egypt, Yemen and Syria to overthrow their longtime dictators. What followed was the destabilization of Iraq, Yemen, Egypt and Syria. This chaos gave rise to radical Islamists known as Al Qaeda and later ISIS in this area.
The president declined to call this an Islamic-based radicalism not wanting anyone to think that there was any relationship between the religion and violence.
He promised to close Gitmo and did much to reduce the population there but was prevented from moving the remaining prisoners to available American prisons. Those who remain there are costing an estimated $10 million a year each.
The Affordable Care Act was neither affordable for the middle class nor did it provide care until the premiums and the deductibles were met. Sometimes this meant that in addition to paying $6,000 a year for the insurance, there was a deductible of as much as $5,000 to $10,000 a year, meaning that this was not coverage but rather insurance for any cost above the combined annual cost. Private insurers were dropping out because they were losing money. They became aware that one unhealthy patient could cost as much as 50 or 100 healthy ones. There would be no way to have the healthy ones make up the difference.
The president, his health secretary and his minority leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, were advised that there was an easy way to fix this deteriorating situation. They could make enrollment voluntary and allow private insurers to reject any applicant for medical or financial reasons. Those rejected would be immediately eligible to the public option which would be 100% federally funded. Those denied for medical reasons would have a share of cost but no deductible and those denied for financial reasons would have no share of cost and no deductibles. This then would be affordable health coverage as opposed to unaffordable health insurance.
He and his people rejected all solutions and insisted on pressing on no matter what.
The president failed to unite the nation when he repeatedly took the side of black Americans. When a Harvard professor was seemingly mistreated by a Cambridge, Mass. police sergeant, Mr. Obama sided with the professor before knowing the whole story. When a young high school football player was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, the president sided with the young man saying that it could have been him as a young man or his son had he had one. It turned out that the young man was killed to stop him from beating the volunteer to death because the man had asked him what he was doing in the gated community. A jury that included six mothers found the accused innocent because he killed in self defense. The Attorney General promised a full investigation and found that from day one it was obviously a case of self defense. The shooter, though innocent, is still considered a pariah by the unthinking public.
When a police officer shot and killed a former high school football player, the president again sided with the young man who was killed. It turned out that he too was killed in self defense and did not have his hands up when he was shot. He was trying to kill the officer who stopped him for having committed a strong-arm robbery minutes before. The president did not intervene and the town rioted for more than four months.
Whenever cases like these came up, it seemed that President Obama sided with the assailant rather than the police who risk their lives daily to protect us. It happened again in Staten Island when a six foot five inch 400 pound man with severe heart, kidney and diabetes problems resisted his 30th arrest. He died of a heart attack while police tried to arrest him. When the mayor of New York came out against the grand jury findings that the police were not at fault, the president sided with the mayor. Days later a person killed two New York police officers feeling justified because even the mayor was against the police.
It happened again in Baltimore when a young drug dealer reacted to his 20th arrest of the year and hit his head accidentally while being transported to jail. The mayor of that city immediately decided that the police were guilty and awarded the young man’s destitute mother $6.5 million before the case went to trial. It turned out that none of the six cops were found guilty. The rioters broke into pharmacies and stole drugs that could be sold on the street. In the next six weeks there were 56 homicides. All but one victim and one killer were black. That year there was a record number of homicides almost all affecting black victims.
But this past year, the president really went off track. He decided to enter the presidential race to promote his chosen successor, Hillary Clinton, his former opponent turned secretary of state. Unlike any president before him, along with his wife, Michelle, and his Vice President, Joe Biden, he went on the campaign trail for her, presumably using taxpayer money for the tremendous expense it entailed. No other sitting president in memory campaigned for his successor. Truman did not campaign for Stevenson. The very popular Ike did not do it for his own vice president, Nixon. Reagan did not do it for his V.P. Bush. Clinton did not campaign for his V.P., Gore. Young Bush did not campaign for Romney.
The president insisted that Hillary was the best prepared to be president, more than anyone ever was. He forgot that Bush Sr. had been Vice President for eight years, head of the CIA, a congressman and a war hero. He forgot that Nixon had been a V.P. for eight years, a congressman and naval officer. How well did they do?
The president promised that Mr. Trump would never be president. He then had to eat his words. When a minority of Americans tried to undo the results of the election, he did not step up and tell them that what they were doing was un-American and was an assault on our democratic system. As a result, some Americans felt encouraged to do whatever they could to overthrow the results.
The president told us that our country was created and made great by diversity. He perhaps forgot that the founding fathers, every president before him except one, and almost every legislator was a white Protestant. This is clearly a white Protestant nation. Diversity is fine but it did not make this country what it is today, for better or worse. He neglected to consider this obvious fact because it appears that he wanted to change our culture to make it less white and less Christian. He refrained from wishing us Merry Christmas for fear offending the few who might take offense by it.
He had tried to reduce the number of immigrants who came to the country illegally until a few years ago when those on the left decried it. He then allowed and encouraged hundreds of thousands of interlopers from Central America to enter the country unimpeded and to disperse into the American countryside with hopes of future citizenship.
And just this past week, he gave Israel, our country’s greatest ally and the homeland for the world’s most besieged people, a knife in the back by instructing his U.N. representative to not veto a resolution that every other president had. It gave false legitimacy to the Paletine region by declaring that its sovereignty had been violated by Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The residents of this region had never had self rule or national status. They had been part of Jordan until the Arab states invaded Israel in 1967 in an attempt to destroy the new nation that was established by the U.N. Israel was victorious humiliating the many Arab states and took back the Sinai, Gaza and the West Bank for security reasons.
In an effort to promote peace in the region, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and later deserted its settlements in Gaza giving its residents autonomy. The people of Gaza reacted by putting in power Hamas, a terrorist organizations that vowed to drive Israel into the sea. The terrorists sent 20,000 rockets into Israel as a thank you note. Knowing this, President Obama still seemed to side with the Arabs against Israel.
The President now has one last choice to make. He can fully endorse his successor, encourage his fellow Americans to do likewise and show his solidarity by attending the inauguration on January 20th.
He would be well to realize that people remember the end more than the beginning. He should do whatever he can in his last few weeks in office to help us remember him well. He owes it to all us who believed in him and wished him great success. He owes it to simple decency.
I hope he does the right thing in the end.
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