Edoardo Ballerini

Listen to full episode: “The Lunatic Fringe”

Dear President Obama,

I supported you in the election.  As loud as I could.  I made calls, sent emails, bought merchandise, attended rallies.  The night before your inauguration I was so excited I could not sleep.

You were a smart, young, handsome, determined candidate who walked the walk.  Your roots were in community organizing and teaching.  I had never seen anyone quite like you running for the highest office in the land…

And you were elected with a mandate, and a majority, for change.  Changes to our foreign policy, changes to our fiscal policy, changes to our core values.  And on some of these things you have delivered, and we are a better nation for it.

But today you disappoint me greatly, Mr. President.  You have allowed the lunatic fringe to dictate the debate on health care and you have not responded.  In fact, you have caved to the very forces you campaigned against.

What should be a great moment in our nation’s history has crumbled into video clips of Barney Frank responding to deranged people asking about “Nazi policy.”  We are once again the laughingstock of the industrialized world.  My brief flirtation with renewed pride in my country has given way to embarrassment.

You are a fan of Abraham Lincoln.  That’s fine.  But I suggest you turn to the lessons of Lyndon Johnson, the man who pushed the Civil Rights Bill despite enormous resistance.  It is probably a better model right now.  It is certainly more current.

You strike me as a man who understands the concept of opportunity.  You would not have risen so high, so fast, had you not.  This, Mr. President, is your opportunity.  Probably your only opportunity.

Seize it.  Now.

Sincerely,

Edoardo Ballerini