An Open Letter To The President.

Mr. Obama,
I am a conservative white male from Kansas, but please don't let that sway you from actually reading the rest of my letter.
Allow me to get straight to the point: you need to listen to your people.
When you became president of the United States in November, I wasn't one of the people dancing in the streets and crying. I did in fact vote for McCain, but after you won, I understood what had happened. Our country had once again practiced what made it great: democracy. We had banded together and elected a common leader, and we had done so unanimously. People had started to gloat and people had started to whine on November 5th, so I wrote a blog post about it.

I woke up in the usual manner today. I worked a late shift until three a.m. and so I slept until about 10:30. I woke up, stumbled out into our living room, and turned on the T.V.

And guess what?

The world hadn't ended. The world hadn't been magically solved of all its problems, either.

Aside from the women on shudder The View, who were gushing and practically crying on network television, the world was moving forward. Cartoons were on, infomercials hawked their useless wares, and CNN was running the morning news gambit.

The world lives on.

Last night, we elected Sen. Barack Obama to be our 44thh president. This morning, we still live in America.

That will never change.

Facebook went crazy last night around 11:00p.m. when Sen. Obama was finally confirmed as the winner. Cries of disappointment and of horribly misspelled ecstasy echoed up and down the News Feed.

I got fed up after about three seconds.

I quickly changed my status to:

"Caleb Sommerville says chill out, America.http://www.kansan.com/blogs/reactor/2008/oct/05/unite/."

That link is, of course, a link to my October 5th blog on moving forward with ourselves after the election is over.

It still stands today.

I also wrote a quick note on my profile:

_"Oh boy, here it comes. Cue the gloating, cue the whining, cue the doomsday marches.

Two words, America:

CHILL OUT.

Yes, Obama will be our next president. Yes, I do think we should not have elected him. But guess what? The people have spoken, and so be it. Stop the whining, stop the gloating. Take your McCain stickers off your cars; take your Obama signs out of your yard.

The election is done, our country will continue on, and above all:

God is still in control.

Daniel 2:21 says:

"He changes times and seasons; He sets up kings and deposes them. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning."

HE set Obama to be president. And HE will decide when he will not be. We needn't worry ourselves about the terrible or mind-blowingly amazing things that will happen to our country.

Obama's the president. Get behind him, support him, and shut up.

In other words, Move, America. Quit whining, quit gloating. It won't do us a dang bit of good. True, I don't like Obama and I don't think he'll be a good president, but guess what?

He's MY president.

I am a citizen of the United States, and we, as a country, elected him.

He's the people's president.

He's (or at least, will be in a few months) our leader. Stop complaining and leaving your McCain/Palin '08 and Ron Paul (seriously?) stickers on your car and start over.

Support Obama. He needs all the help he can get.

So you see, Mr. President, I supported you. I knew that our country had spoken, I knew that whining and complaining wouldn't get me anywhere. I simply had to hope that you would actually institute the non-party line change that you promised.
But that was in November.
Now, almost a year later, that same change you promised has happened, but not like you promised.
Instead, you have drifted back to the left, sometimes so far left in fact, that you have alienated not only most of the Republican Party but also some of the Democrats.
Sure, you will always have your detractors, but you as the president must also work to try to BRIDGE that gap, not do everything you can to widen it.
But it's not just the party members you have alienated. You, Mr. President, have alienated your people.
The people that disagree with you, at least.
Instead of listening to dissenting opinions, considering alternatives, or at least letting others speak, you have adopted a McCarthy-esque nature of immediately and categorically ignoring and ridiculing those who disagree with you.
Sure, there are those that must be ignored. A military coup is ridiculous. A death panel will (hopefully) never happen. These things are indeed silly.
But you have taken it too far, Mr. President. You did not develop a thick skin during your tenure as Senator, and you have taken disagreements far too personally.
Or perhaps, you have let your supporters take it too personally on your behalf. It seems I cannot open an opinion page these days without seeing a columnist that supports you that says all who disagree with your policies are racist, ignorant, stupid, uneducated crazies.
This is of course, mostly not true. There are of course crazies on both sides, but for the most part, the arguments brought against you are well-thought out common issues, not fringe wackos.
But you, Mr. President, have dismissed all disagreements and refuse to listen to dissent.
And I am standing here as a citizen to tell you that that is not okay.
You are the President. It is your duty to listen to your people, and to react accordingly. Refusing categorically to listen to dissent that tends towards the scary realm of undemocracy. Democracy means, Mr. President, that you must listen to your people. You must take counter-arguments into account and not just assume that they are all uninformed.
Please, Mr. President. Listen to your people. The fringe grows more reckless every day, and it worries me. If you would just listen to counter-arguments and show some proof that you indeed are, then the fringe would not be so willing to attack everything you say. Then also, your supporters would not be so willing to attack your detractors.
Please, Mr. President. You are our leader. Please act that way.