Dear President Joe,
I know there's not much of a chance you'll ever read this, but I wanted get it off my chest. I'm 76. Not quite your age, but getting there. And I have noticed a decline. It takes longer for the words to come, and as for my short term memory, forget it.
Unlike you, I haven't been politically engaged for 50 years. My political career began November 9, 2016. But like you, since then I've been doing it 24/7. I'm part of what you'd call the grassroots infrastructure.
To be honest, I didn't want you to be the candidate in 2020. I preferred Bernie or Elizabeth. But I got behind you when you got the nomination and when you beat Donald Trump it felt like the culmination of four years hard work. I'm eternally grateful to you for stopping that poison, and if that was all you ever did from that point on, it was enough for me.
But then a miracle happened. You became the most effective president of my lifetime. You beat Covid. With a bare majority in Congress, you got legislation after legislation passed and began the reversal of a decades long economic decline. You shored up NATO. You took on climate change and drug companies. You stood up for working people and you stood up to dictators and aggressors. You got on a picket line and you reversed student debt, and a thousand other things. And you did them calmly, even quietly, knowing calm and quiet were what we needed.
You also did the most courageous thing I ever saw a president do: you got us out of a war we had no business being in. Yes, it was messy when we left Afghanistan, but a lot less messy than our exit from Vietnam. And Vietnam's exit was forced while Afghanistan's wasn't. It was a choice. We left Afghanistan because you knew we didn't belong there.
And now you've gone and done another courageous thing. You dropped out. You admitted you were wrong. You put country first. What calibre of leader does it take to do that? FDR? Lincoln? Washington? As for the election, not to worry. We've got this.
I'm not alone in thinking these things. Millions do, millions love you and are forever grateful to you for your wisdom, your integrity, your kindness and compassion, your political savvy, your shining sanity. Millions yet unborn will owe a debt of gratitude to you.
So thanks. Just thanks. You deserve a rest but I hope when you leave office we'll still be able to see your smile. Don't be a stranger.
Yours,
Wayne Liebman