I sent this out to a few of my press contacts.
Feel free to critique or use for your own. Letters to the editor are still very important.
As someone who has gone to great lengths to facilitate a rational discussion between the two sides, I am deeply disturbed by how our President reacted yesterday to the Senate voting against the gun control measures in front of them. At one point the President even said "there were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn't do this".
The President himself called multiple times for a rational debate on the issue, but it appears as though he never took the time to listen himself. How are we supposed to get anything accomplished, when someone in such a prominent position is so unwilling to back up his own pleas. Perhaps if he would spend more time listening to the other side as opposed to demonizing it, he would be able to achieve a better understanding of the issues, and may actually accomplish something.
I in no way believe our president to be a naive or unintelligent individual. Therefore, it concerns me greatly when I see such a person say that the other side "willfully lied" all the while continuing to perpetuate easily and repeatedly debunked arguments such as the 40% number.
Over the past few months, support for the President's proposals has steadily deteriorated. I believe this is because as time went by, more and more people began to see through the President's veil. They saw not a man who truly wanted to work with the other side, but a man who continually and disingenuously perpetuated grossly false statistics. They saw a man readily admit that his proposals would be largely ineffective in addressing the self purported driving force, all the while refusing to accept more promising counter proposals. They saw a man more interested in political smears and pushing an agenda, than working through ideas to find something effective and passable. If your intent is true and your cause is just, then why resort to such tactics?
The President's actions yesterday were not only beneath his office, they were beneath his cause and himself as a person. The truth is, there were items in the proposals that both sides supported. Unfortunately, it came down to all or nothing and we the People, got nothing.