Dear President Obama

Have you ever wondered what you would say to President Obama if given the opportunity?

I know what I would tell him. Surprisingly, I'd even be able to express my thoughts in fewer than five hundred words.

President Obama,

Since the beginning of your presidency, you have placed the effectiveness of your policies second to your determination to make sure that conservatives would not be able to call you a socialist.

Even though we needed $2 trillion in the stimulus package in order to create an economic recovery, you only contributed $500 billion to actual stimulus spending, as well as wasting $287 billion on tax cuts.

Even though we needed a public option in the health care reform bill so as to guarantee that all Americans would have access to affordable quality medical coverage, you jettisoned it and thus left millions needlessly uninsured.

Even though one of the easiest and fairest ways to reduce our catastrophically high budget deficit is to raise taxes on the wealthy, you refuse to consider moving the tax rate on top portion earnings back to what it was under Clinton (39.6%), or indeed to what it was under Nixon (70%) or Eisenhower (91%).

As a result of these compromises, the policies that America requires have not been implemented. What’s more, because conservatives are determine to destroy even moderate liberals such as yourself, the false charge of “socialist” is still being made against you despite your numerous attempts to "reach across the aisle."

You see, Joe McCarthy is alive and well.

He lives in the words of right-wing pundits like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Ann Coulter.

He lives in the rhetoric of demagogical politicians like Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Rand Paul.

He lives in the angry fatuity of the Tea Party movement, the Christian Coalition, and countless other New Right groups.

It is time for you to realize that when you accommodate the latter-day McCarthys by altering your policies, the act of incorporating diverse perspectives isn't improving them; it is weakening their effectiveness, which works to the detriment not only of the liberal movement you represent, but of the American people you have sworn to serve.

It is time for you to realize that when you appease the latter-day McCarthys by bending to their wishes, or even by simply refusing to openly fight them, you are not strengthening America by building bipartisan bridges. All you are doing is contributing to the triumph of stentorian stupidity over the needs of humanity.

It is time for you to realize, President Obama, that any man who is unwilling to be hated does not deserve to be respected.

In short, it is time for you to stop pleading and start leading.