Declaration of Independence

I just sent the following email to our President. I had just unsubscribed from his the email list for his campaign, and was prompted to explain why I was doing so. After writing a paragraph or two, I discovered that I had more to say than I originally expected.

I'm unsubscribing from your emails today, Mr. President. There are many reasons for this, from the simple to the philosophical.

The impetus for my taking this action was simple: I was fed up with all of the commerce-based, post-Thanksgiving, Black Friday-infused email you've sent me in the past few days. You're here to represent us. You're not here to be a store, so stop acting like one; stop sending emails about sales, coffee mugs, and free shipping. This is about governance, not selling cheap, branded gifts and baby clothes to raise money.

But now that I'm here, and you've asked me to tell you why I'm unsubscribing, I find that I have a lot more to say.

I’ve thought and believed for many years that you’re a good person, Mr. President. I’m going to state that up front. I like how you think and how you feel, and I do find myself agreeing with your viewpoints frequently.

But you need to show that you're listening to us, Mr. President. Show that you're not just running for re-election like all of the other career politicians in the country. You've put together petitions on whitehouse.gov, but they seem more of a way for you to gather email addresses and send out your existing message than a channel for listening to the People. And, yes, I capitalize "People" very deliberately.

There's a lot going on right now. There are protests in the streets, violent police crackdowns, people calling for getting the money out of politics, and for getting morality back into business. We want transparency. We want change. We want accountability. We want that morality. We don't want just another reelection campaign. You haven't addressed what is happening in communities throughout the country, and all we ever hear about is fundraising and the differences between “us” and “them”. You tell a version of the same story, but you tell it through the filter of someone simply running for elected office.

This is unacceptable. You and I know what these protests - the Occupy Movement and the even The Tea Party before it - are really about, even if we're all collectively told they have "no clear message". The moral compass of our country - of our government and of our commerce - is adrift, and the People know it even if they can't put it into words.

Now is the time for change. Now is the time to start fixing this. You've always said “it won't be easy”; I agree, but we need your help. Be our champion, and we'll be your People. Stop running for reelection. Start running to change this country, and show us you're doing it. Rise above the insipid tossing and turning of Congress. Speak to us. Speak for us.

I was proud to vote for you in Illinois when you were running for Senate, and I was proud to vote for you when you were running to become President. I'm not feeling so proud right now, and I'm not seeing the change we were promised. You have done many good things in the past few years, and I'll be the first one standing to defend you on that front; but it's not change. It's all still stuck in the same partisan mire.

You are a good man - I firmly believe that - but we need you to be a great one now.

So here's my small statement - I'm gone. I’m declaring myself Independent. I’m not buying the party line. I believe party lines are hurting this country and driving it into factions. I believe we should govern from the center. I believe we should govern from the needs of real people.

If it takes stepping away to show you that, then so be it. It's up to you to get me back again, and all the others like me. I hope you can, but you need to step up and do it.


-David Joy
29, Entrepreneur, Small Business Employee, Fully-Employed Supporter of Occupy Wall Street, Centrist, and now Independent
Somerville, MA (formerly of Carbondale, IL)