Open letter to President Obama regarding veiled endorsement of Secretary Clinton in Democratic Primary 3/17/2016

An open letter to president Barack Obama.

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Dear President Obama:

Early on in 2008, I supported a young first term senator, who "conventional wisdom" said did not have a chance of becoming president.   He was not "white", had a peculiar first name, and a "Muslim" surname.  To make matters worse, his middle name was Hussein.  In spite of all that, I knew he was the leader we needed.  At that time, party establishment had decreed that Hillary Clinton was to be our nest president, and the first woman president in United States history.

Eight exciting years have followed, you got elected, and in spite of immense pressures, some of the most racist behavior I have seen since my youth in the rural south during the 50's and 60's, and a fabricated financial crisis that you inherited, and then got blamed for, you have demonstrated yourself to be one of the most gracious presidents in recent history.  I personally thank you for granting full "Marriage" equality within federal agencies.  My husband is Italian, and we are able for him to apply for a "Relative" change of status (tourist to Work) because of your forward thinking.

In spite of your having a long track record with Secretary Clinton, I have respected your neutrality during this primary season, a neutrality that has NOT been demonstrated by party leadership in this primary.  

My first moment of concern was when I was told over a year ago, that expressing interest or enthusiasm for any candidate other than Secretary Clinton would precipitate my expulsion from any meaningful participation in this primary within party ranks.   I know at least two members of the DNC, and when I mention or attempt to discuss Bernie Sanders, the reception is very cool.  I would add that party leadership had similar responses to my enthusiasm for your candidacy 8 years ago.  As Tupac said, “Some things never change."

We are supposed to have primary processes that offer the opportunity for actual voters to determine our candidate, not party elite.

Secretary Clinton has repeatedly demonstrated her lack of genuine contact with, or empathy for the most powerless in our country.  The nadir of her thoughtless (if not callous) perspectives on current life in the United States, was her "praise" of the Reagan response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980's.  

I lived through those years, hell on earth, watched most of my community die horrific deaths, while the Reagan’s "fiddled away" not even mentioning AIDS, and quietly obstructing any mention of the carnage in our communities in the mainstream media.

What particularly galls me about the ongoing coverage of this primary, and OUR party's leadership, are the ongoing and consistent ways in which Bernie Sanders and his campaign have been marginalized, ignored, minimized, and re-invented to "contain" his campaign, and cast it as marginal.    This is particularly painful, and galling because it is EXACTLY the same process that Reagan and his minions used to bury the AIDS epidemic, surrounding it in ignorance and fear, shoving our lives into the perimeter of American life, and just letting us die.  I stopped counting friends and associates who had died after 150.  

If you see the last scenes of "The Normal Heart" a young man has a ritual in which he pulls the index cards out of his Rolodex when someone dies.  The stack of pulled cards grows and grows, until is is more cards than the ones remaining in the Rolodex.  

THAT is how I remember the 80s's and early 90's, and the Reagan "response" to AIDS in this country.  

Secretary Clinton, complementing the Reagan’s on their response to AIDS is the same as complimenting Hitler on his treatment of the Jews in Europe.

And today, you let it "leak" that it is time for Senator Sanders to pull out of the race in the name of "party unity."  The timing is perfect, upcoming primaries are the ones in which Secretary Clinton is not expected to perform as well as she has.   Your statement today is the political equivalent of slipping a small knife in the back of the Sanders campaign.  

Is THIS what you want us to "unify" behind?   A party whose leadership has become so callous and insensitive to the plight of working Americans that we are expected to rally behind the person who had significant influence in creating the current economy, that bleeds working people, students, seniors, and school children for the sake of even MORE profit for the billionaire class?  

We are supposed to forget Secretary Clinton's participation in creating "crime reform" that has resulted in the largest mass incarceration in the history of America?  Are we supposed to rally behind her ties to the private prison industry?  Her voting for a bankruptcy "reform" bill that enslaves students to their loan debt for the rest of their lives?  Are we supposed to get all warm and fuzzy about her late blooming regarding criminal justice issues, and the safety of people of color on American streets?  

Does Secretary Clinton worry about Chelsea getting killed by a police officer because of a burned out tail light?  

These are all issues that Senator Sanders has demonstrated significant leadership on, for all of his life, and they were rarely mentioned by Secretary Clinton until she realized that almost half the party was supporting Senator Sanders.  

Suddenly, she’s “seeing the light” and frankly, Anderson Cooper of CNN said it best when she discussed her Wall Street speeches, “Will you say anything to get elected?”  

We are still waiting for her to release the transcripts of those speeches, and we know she won’t release them because “playing to her audience,” and dodging any disclosures that might incriminate her, are what she does best.  

Consider that enough of us realize that “Taking the Fifth” is an admission of guilt.  Maybe YOU can get her to release those transcripts, I’m not holding my breath.

Your veiled support of Secretary Clinton today was inexcusable.   It was grossly out of character for you.

You owe Senator Sanders and his supporters an apology for “meddling” in the primary process.   And I won’t be holding my breath for that either.  

It is a sad state of affairs that the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the greatest president since Lincoln, has come to this.  

As for “Party Unity,”  the party isn’t over, and showing Senator Sanders and his supporters the door, when it’s barely halfway over, is the height of arrogant rudeness.  That is what we continue to see from too many in party leadership, and if you expect us to feel all good about it, think again.

If Secretary Clinton is the nominee, I will hold my nose and vote for her.  She will need all the votes she can get, because I have serious concerns about her electability, and she very well may lose.  If that happens, I will try to resist the temptation to say “I told you so” but it will be very hard.  

Regards,  

Edward George Garren, MA, LMFT

Family Therapist

Los Angeles, CA

www.EdwardGarrenMFT.com

"There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more

corrupt—until recently... and more willing than the Republicans to make small

adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand.

But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.”

Gore Vidal