Three Years Ago Today

[On July 18, 2003, using the then new White House e-mail system, I wrote to "President" Bush, choosing "Education" from a very limited list of topic choices and clicking "In support of." The following subject line was automatically generated by the system.]

Subject: Write a Supporting Comment on Education

Dear President Bush:

The subject is misleading. I chose the "Education" category because none of the categories provided fits my concern. Also, I don't know what "a supporting comment on education" is supposed to mean. Of course, I support "education." Do I support your policies? That's another question altogether.

Actually, what I support is the U.S. Constitution's provision for an executive branch of government. However, I do not approve of your being the head of that branch.

One of the many, many reasons that I disapprove of your holding the office of President of the United States is that you don't really care what my views, suggestions, and concerns might be, whatever assurance might be given by the second sentence on your new "user-friendly" website.

Another way of saying this is that you are not a democratic president (whether Democrat or Republican). Your way (and the way of the modern Republican Party) is the way of the juggernaut rather than the way of free and open debate.

I do not accept that you are legitimately the President of the United States. Your major opponent got more votes, and Florida's electoral votes should have been thrown out, whatever the ruling of the narrow majority on the United States Supreme Court.

I do not approve of your huge tax cuts. It amazes me that so many people (many of whom even vote) seem to believe your repeated (and repeated, "on message") assurances that such cuts are necessary to jump-start or stimulate the economy.

I did not approve of your ignoring the United Nations and concocting a highly misleading set of allegations to take us to war in Iraq.

I did not approve of your editing the EPA's recent environmental report to remove the parts that disagreed with your own contentions about global warming and related matters.

I do not approve of having a Texas National Guard lieutenant who went AWOL for over a year as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the United States.

I do not approve of your employing the dirty trickster Karl Rove (however much of a "genius" your "Turd Blossom" may be) to manipulate political discourse and smear opponents to get you into office. But I understand why you do it. Someone like you couldn't have gotten into office any other way. You probably couldn't have gotten into Yale either if your father and his father hadn't been Yalies. You give legacy admissions policies a bad name.

I do not approve of what I label your "Soviet style" of lying, where you simply say that you believe the exact opposite of what you really seem to believe. There are literally dozens (if not hundreds) of examples of this that I might cite if I had bothered to record them. But I have already cited one perfect example, the statement in the first paragraph of the introduction: "President Bush welcomes your views, suggestions, and concerns."

But you don't care what I think.

Sincerely,

[As a result of my "supporting comment on education," within two days I received a late-night telephone call from a Republican rundraising group. And, oh yes, a "signed" letter from Bush thanking me for my support of his education policies.]