Robert H Myers

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An open letter of apology to President Obama

Dear Mr. President,

On the eve of your status as a lame duck, I’d like to take this moment to apologize to you, personally.

I haven’t always been a fan, and truth told, I voted against you. Twice. I’ve been a Republican my entire voting life (20 years!) and as a believer in smaller government, the idea of a community organizer and socialist(?) in the White House, didn’t sit well with me. Still doesn’t, if I’m being honest. Though I don’t think of you as only those two things any longer.

I was angry at a number of things you said and did while in office. I didn’t care for the “You didn’t build that” moment. Oh man, and the “bitter clingers” speech! And the idea of getting to a single payer system, particularly, sent me into hysterics. They were all anathema to my views on what a President should believe, and I didn’t hesitate in letting my displeasure be known. In fact, I think I even sent an email to the whitehouse.gov email address stating something about you being a commie – but that was back in ’08. I’m sure you saw it.

Needless to say, my words in regards to your; beliefs, actions, words, and general existence, have been far from glowing. However, now that we stand on the precipice of an election which is surely going to send us all to the bowels of hell, regardless of who wins, I can’t help but reflect on your performance over these past  eight years. I’m sure you’ve been waiting with baited breath.

First, I’d like to apologize for being generally shitty towards you. Yeah, I’m not proud of it. I get these timehop things in my Facebook feed and I’ve seen comments I’ve made over the years and I really wish I could take them back. Not all of them, mind you. But enough of them.

I’m proud to call you my President, and I’m proud of how you’ve handled yourself in office these past eight years. I haven’t agreed (obviously) with the majority of your choices or words, but I do respect how you’ve handled yourself. And for that, I’m grateful.

Far too often I think we’re truly awful to one another in the pursuit of partisan agendas. It’s easy to dismiss those who disagree with us and even easier to demonize them – not just “the other” but those directly opposed to our way of thinking. When we see and hear others demonizing us, it becomes even easier to return the favor – even to those that never did it to us in the first place.

Case in point, it sucks to repeatedly hear that you’re racist just for being a Republican. Please know, none of my negative views towards you stemmed from your being black. I love black people. Not in the “Jerry Maguire” way in which Cuba Gooding Jr. makes Tom Cruise say it, but genuinely, as I love all people. Except Muslims.

Sorry, that was a joke. I couldn’t resist. I have no issue with Muslims, but I wouldn’t mind if everyone on earth decided to become atheist. But I digress…

In the spirit of being fully honest, possibly my biggest gripe with you (and you know this) is that you’re so damn cool. No one has any business being that cool. Especially not a politician. No Republican has ever been that cool. Hell, most rock stars aren’t that cool. Do you know how infuriating that is? It’s like Shaq walking into a middle school gym – it’s just not fair. You are literally the other side of the pillow.

Please know, I haven’t switched sides. I believe there’s no smaller minority than the individual. I loathe collectivism with the fire of a thousand suns. I think free markets and free people are the best solutions to virtually every problem we face. But I don’t think you’re a bad guy.

I think you’ve been a phenomenal President and have honored the office far better than most people. God knows I would have been impeached within weeks if I had the gig, so my hats off to you. How you kept from mooning the press corps from the Truman balcony, I have no idea – or maybe you’re saving that for your last day in office? Well played, sir.

Finally, thanks for your sacrifice – because the Presidency is a massive sacrifice. I think we forget that. You don’t belong to you or your family, you belong to the American People for four or eight years. Every decision you make is going to piss off half of them, on any given day. For that, you deserve all of our thanks and appreciation.

If there’s anything I can do for you, maybe a letter of recommendation for your next job (I’m really good at those), please don’t hesitate to let me know.

With all of my sincere love and thanks,

Rob Myers

U.S. Citizen

P.S. I’m still pissed about ObamaCare, but what’s done is done – we don’t have to talk about it.

 

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3

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  1. Kathy Lauren

    Hi Rob, I appreciate your honesty. That said, I’ve loved almost everything our wonderful POTUS Obama has done. He is a great man with nothing on his mind except to help the less fortunate in our country. He put ego aside, always, to be fair and humble. He did his best to keep our men and women at arms our of harm’s way.
    Now that we have a narcissistic president, I’m sure you can see the HUGE differences not only in their manner, but in their ideology. Scary, very scary. He has surrounded himself with questionable characters. Becky DeVos is so objectionable I don’t even know where to begin. Rick Perry? Seriously? Sessions? OMG And the others are just as horrific. I may not have truly cared for several of our presidents, but I never before actually despised one. And I do despise Trump. I wanted to accept him, but I cannot. Nearly every sentence, if you can refer to them as sentences, that comes out of his mouth is cringe worthy. So, we are in for daily cringing, and quite possibly much worse. War, yes, there will be a big one coming. He and his cronies are actually inciting war. Trump has his war toys and he does intend to use them. God help us all.

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  2. LOUIS MILONE

    I agree with Kathy Lauren’s sentiments. I am curious as to any additional comments Rob has now, given a full year of Trump insanity. To me, Obama looks better and better relative to Trump as each day passes. I miss the class of Obama and his entire family. There is no equivalent anywhere near the White House right now.

    Of all the people who rated a “thumbs down” to Kathy’s comments, I would bet that all of them are avid Fox News watchers, as well as following one or more of the other conservative media radio personalities, like Rush (the blowhard) Limbaugh.

    The lot of them (conservative pundits and faux evangelicals) are truly despicable people. They sold their integrity for money and false gods years ago, and our country suffers mightily as a result.

    . . … As an aside, this website is requiring me to put in my email address and it says that my address will never be shared. I sure hope that is correct.

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  3. roberthmyers33

    Mr. Milone,
    I’d be happy to give you my update on the Year+ of President Trump’s term in office.

    First, I’d like to say that hyperbole doesn’t help us connect with one another, and doesn’t assist us in arriving at a true picture of what’s happening. It does make for great emotional flair.

    With that in mind, I’d question many of Ms. Lauren’s comments, as well as your own. For instance, is someone ‘wrong’ because they watch Fox news? What about CNN? Or MSNBC? Are they ‘wrong’ because they’ve listened to the views of Rush or Hannity? Are a lot of conservative pundits “truly despicable people?” Did they sell “their integrity for money and false gods” at the expense of the country? Is Trump really “enciting war?”

    I don’t agree with any of those statements for a host of reasons, but mostly because I think painting with an overly broad brush doesn’t help us find genuine points of agreement. Never attribute to malevolence that which can be explained by stupidity. Most politics is looking for the soft underbelly of your opponent and stabbing publically, all well believing oneself to be morally superior, because of course, we have “better” ideas.

    I think it’s always wise to assume positive intent on the part of others unless clear evidence would show that not to be the case. And I do mean clear evidence, which is hardly ever available.

    Trump has many failings, though that’s the easiest thing in the world to say. He’s self-centered, used to getting his way, prone to emotional outbursts, doesn’t parse his words, doesn’t self-censor, and he can act on impulse like nothing I’ve ever seen before. He’s discourteous, vain, boastful, prone to grandiose hyperbole, and is often very grating. He lacks any “political” experience for the job, and because he’s dismissive of what anyone thinks of him, he can’t be reigned in by public opinion or political posturing.

    That being said, I see no evidence that the man is sexist, racist, or the litany of things the left loves to hurl at him. For one to conclude those things they need to look at a select window of events while ignoring countless others, and I think if we’re going to apply a charge so serious we need to look at the entire body of work as opposed to cherry-picking things that fit our narrative.

    And with all of that, he still blew out Hillary Clinton in an election she should have won by nearly double digits. What does that say about the condition of America as a whole? Are the millions of people that voted for Obama and then voted for Trump suddenly sexist and racist? I don’t see that as a rational conclusion.

    As far as style goes, Trump gets an “F” in my book. However, style means bupkis when it comes to rating a President on their accomplishments. Clearly, no politician has had less class than Trump over the last 30 years. But do I care? Not much. In fact, I find great humor in his buffoonery. Most of his schtick is theater and I don’t think we do ourselves any favors when we try to pretend that it’s “scary” in any real sense.

    The man isn’t a conservative by any stretch of the imagination though we knew that going in. He has essentially the same general aim as a preferred conservative might; smaller government, loosening of regulations, pro-choice in schools, and a deferral to States rights. There’s a lot to dislike about Trump, not least of which is the manner and style in which he does things, but it’s not like people didn’t know that beforehand.

    I don’t think he’s nearly as bad as people make him out to be. He may be 30% as bad as the press and rhetoric paint him, and that’s really the thing. Because he doesn’t care about what people think of him, and because his supporters have been immune to the attempted shaming of the left, they’ve dialed up the rhetoric to 11 in hopes something sticks, and so far nothing has.

    I think everyone would do well to take a deep breath and really explore their own statements and hyperbole around their descriptions of policies and proposals on most things. I don’t think Obama wanted to “destroy America” because he was in favor of a single-payer system. I think he genuinely thought that was the best for the Country. While I fervently disagree, I can still respect the views of our former POTUS and his supporters – many of whom are close friends and family.

    What have you found yourself saying about Trump, or anyone else that may be a little out of bounds, or that lacks any concrete foundation? What points do you believe (while you may disagree with) are coming from positive intentions of your political rivals?

    Demonizing each other may feel good in the moment but it is a great way to make sure the other side tunes us out and ensures that no meaningful discussion can take place. I’ve been called a white supremacist, sexist, jingoistic whatever, more times than I can count over the last year and a half despite there being zero evidence for such claims. I’m still trying to understand and respect those I disagree with, and I think that’s all any of us really can do.

    p.s. WordPress asks for the email, so I don’t even have it. I think your address is as safe as WordPress decides to make it.

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