President Obama, We Need You

By Hootsbuddy

Dear Mr. President:

Your vision of health care and insurance reform, a centerpiece of not only your campaign platform but of the other candidates as well, has gone into the Congressional sausage grinder and is being torn to pieces. You and the other candidates didn't talk a lot about the idea during the campaign except in the most general of terms. It was an accepted reality that health care reform would be on the to-do list of any new president.

All the smart people know that the system we now have is unaffordably expensive, inequitable and filled with loopholes and old agreements with special interests that if not corrected will lead to an economic train wreck no one wants to imagine. Even the loudest voices yelling their opposition to H.R.3200 know that what we have been doing isn't working and is in serious need of repair. 

The last few weeks have seen a level of fear and frustration spread among us faster than a flu pandemic. A natural fear of the unknown and a well-founded mistrust of elected representatives are being exploited by well-funded efforts on the part of many groups, each fighting in its own way for status quo.

Left unchecked fear of this unknown leads to anger, rage and the mob behavior we are now witnessing. This frustration is real. The anger is not counterfeit. And the cause cannot be explained simply by pointing a finger at any one group. It is the consequence of many different interests converging in a perfect storm, a tipping point resulting in public conflict that has not been seen for many years. 

Mr. President we need your leadership now more than at any moment since you were elected. This is not the time to delegate. This is a time for you to take the stage -- the bully pulpit, if you will -- and call upon your considerable gifts, not to calm, not to stop worrying, not to cool our passions, but to redirect this energy in a different direction.

Fear is the emotion of the day. We fear the unknown. We fear that what might happen may be even worse than what we know. With good reason we do not trust our elected representatives. And at some level we really know that powerful interests are exploiting a critical moment in our national development. It is easier to live with the evil we know than perhaps confront one we have not yet met.

Rage is good. Anger is justified. Frustration is in order. But as the president, you must now find a way to aim this negative energy in a positive direction. It is now time to reveal and explain the many conflicting developments that have brought us to a political impasse. We need you to put on your teaching hat and become our Professor in Chief.

You have about four weeks to conduct a seminar of unprecedented size. We need a syllabus, a schedule and a goal. It needs to be in writing and it needs to be simple enough that even the most illiterate among us can understand. We need feedback and interaction, one of your strongest attributes. This piece of the seminar must be delegated. Others will have to discover what is most critical. This is not the only item on your desk. But make no mistake about it. You are the one who must drive home the hard truths we now must face and explain how conflicting interests -- all with the best of good intentions -- cannot be reconciled without making compromises.

Conflict resolution is one of the most important parts of your job description. And fortunately for us, it is an outstanding gift in your skill set. 

We are waiting for your next move. We don't want empty words that sound like "Ya'll need too calm down." We want to hear you say "I know you're mad as hell and won't take it any more.  I know you are scared of what might happen. I know some of you think I have a hidden agenda and want to turn our country into a top-heavy bureaucratic monster that will eat you all for breakfast."

You must accept and validate this public rage and find a way to redirect it toward the real villains in our midst, the well-funded organized groups now spending millions of dollars on a war of television commercials, viral emails, social networks, scripted rage at public meetings and old-fashioned gossip that distort the realities of the status quo and what will surely come to pass if we fail to take action.

We don't need to "kill the bill" as so many are chanting. We need to fix the bill. And of all who can redirect public outrrage in a more constructive direction it is you, Mr. Pressident, who is best qualified.

This is not the playoffs. We are only part way through the game. This is "time out" an the ball has bounced in your direction. It came prematurely from the Legislative Branch to the Executive Branch and if you don't do something with it others will. Our two best competing teams in the House, Democrats and Republicans, have only succeded in making us afraid and angry. The playoff is the next game which happens in the Senate. It's not supposed to happen this way but the results of the playoff depends a lot on what you do with this out of bounds ball over the next four weeks.

We are waiting for your next move. 

Concerned American