6/13/2022

My Dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

How are you? I really want to know! How ARE you?

Gail Collins (GC) & Bret Stephens (BS) point out in today’s NYT that “It’s not easy being President,” & the G says AOC is refusing to endorse you. BS writes that you need to hear some tough love & GC conceded that you could replace Janet Yellen with Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary, to “make a doing-something show” to deal with inflation.

I have 3 suggestions that improve the situation.

1st, get your name in the news. Today you had 0 mentions in the NYT while DJT had 7. Please recall that bad publicity is better than no publicity.

2nd, ramp up the Ed Dept. Miguel Cardona needs to make noise about the role of schooling in our democracy. If he wants some help, I can share my best lecture on the topic from 2010 when I compared the army snipers aiming their weapons at the crowds of protestors during the Arab spring to the police gathered in Sacramento while 1000 students were on the steps of the capitol to protest tuition hikes. I asked my class, do you want police who just follow orders, or do you want police who can think for themselves & do the right thing & refuse to kill their fellow citizens? Since my undergraduates could see themselves in the young folks in the streets of Tunisia demanding change, they appreciated the gravity of the issue. (I wish that the soldiers in Myanmar who are being ordered to kill their neighbors had a better education. Then more might defect.) In addition to free thinkers, we need Americans to understand how our government works. In a recent poll, only 56% of us could name the 3 branches of govn’t & 20% couldn’t name one. We need to fix this.

3rd, do not run again. You have filled an important niche & for that I am grateful. I worry that your energy level is just not high enough to keep your name in the headlines. I may be projecting my own limited energy on to you, but I doubt it.

            BYBS,