You never failed to disappoint me

Dear George:

I just wanted to thank you for providing me with the impetus to finally change my voter registration from Republican to independent. The last time I voted Republican was 1980, but I stayed a registered Republican because I always held out hope that the moderate element of the party would predominate over the religious fundamentalist conservative wing, especially after Clinton was elected president. I guess I should mention that I'm a gay New York attorney.

Then you became president under the most dubious of circumstances, and you ruled as if you had a mandate from the voters. You never failed to disappoint me.

Then 9/11 happened, and I was willing to give you a chance to act as a leader. And initially you did, when you attacked Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Then you pushed for and got the Patriot Act, one of the most extreme encroachments upon our civil liberties.

Then you pushed for and got a war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the war against terrorism, while Al-Qaeda seems to move about pretty freely between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

But the icing on the cake was your unabashed support for the Federal Marriage Amendment, not only attempting to usurp the states' authority in this area of law, but attempting to codify discrimination into the U.S. Constitution. I'll have to tell my boyfriend to cross you off the guest list for our wedding next year.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for getting me off my butt and changing my voter registration to independent. I don't know what took me so long. Even my dad, who was a life-long Republican, changed to independent at least two years before I did.

Oh, did I mention that you're not getting my vote?

Patrick
Age 42
Levittown, NY