A Letter to President Biden from Former Michigan Congressman David Bonior
Dear Mr. President,
We are contemporaries who have served many years together in the leadership of Congress– you in the Senate and me in the House. I am approaching my 80th year so I am right on your heels. Permit me to share with you some observations about the present state of affairs in our country and around the world.
I offer high praise and respect, but also profound criticism and deep dismay.
First, thank you and your team for your leadership in working to save our planet and democracy. Nothing could be more important. Saving democracy here at home and in Ukraine are monumental challenges. Your fight for democracy demonstrates what is best about our country.
Under your leadership our economy is setting employment records with over 350,000 jobs added in January and unemployment below 4%. We are experiencing the two strongest years of job growth in our nation’s history. Our skylines are filled with cranes and our roads and bridges lined with workers in orange vests. While gas and food are still too high for too many, inflation is coming down as a result of your Inflation Reduction Act.
Your executive orders protecting access to reproductive health care for women are vital as many states are rewriting their laws to reduce options for women.
Students, their parents, and grandparents are appreciative of your historic student debt relief for middle- and working-class families.
Our Michigan families are proud of your cooperation with our state and local governments in protecting our Great Lakes water quality.
As a result of Covid, we have catch-up responsibilities in K-12 education. Your administration’s program to reduce absenteeism, provide intense tutoring, and increase more opportunities for summer learning and after-school learning time is vital for our children’s futures.
We are starting to make progress on gun law reforms. And mental health needs throughout our society have taken a more prominent role in your government.
Your record on domestic issues is admirable —a record to be proud of.
Mr. President, like you, my roots are working class with a strong appreciation for workers and their labor rights. I am also a Ukrainian-American whose grandfather migrated to the US in 1912. Your efforts to rally the world to support Ukraine in response to Putin’s aggression is historic. Ukrainians have been courageous in their efforts to remove the Russian colonial boot that over the centuries has kept Ukraine from realizing its destiny as a free and independent democracy. I applaud your efforts to get them the aid they so desperately needed and still need to win their fight for democracy in Ukraine.
Yet, despite all you have accomplished Mr. President, your re-election is in jeopardy. The pundits say that the Republicans have come home for Donald Trump but not yet the Democrats for Biden.
As a young airman in the US Air Force in 1968, I watched the growing opposition in the country to the Vietnam War. Chicago exploded with violence over the war and our nominee Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey could not recover from that convention nor from the disgust and revulsion many felt over the war. After the convention Nixon opened a sizable lead that Humphrey could not close.
It is no secret that for you to close your gap with Trump and win in November you need to retain and expand the core base of your coalition of voters. Your handling of the war in Gaza is not helping you to do that.
In fact, it is the most significant problem you have with young voters as well as Arab Americans, and progressive Democrats. In 2020 you beat Trump among 18–24-year-olds by 24 points. Today polls show the race to be even with young people. Likewise Arab American leaders in Michigan tell me you are in deep trouble in their communities. A recent National poll had you only running even with the Hispanic community after winning the Hispanic vote by a 2 to 1 margin in 2020. Among African Americans your support has declined from 90% of the vote in 2020 to 71% in a recent U.S. poll. Progressives are beside themselves knowing how the US is enabling Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
An attack on Hamas leaders and fighters was justified because of the savage killings of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on Oct 7th. But the wholesale, indiscriminate bombing by Israel with 2,000-pound bombs, in densely occupied neighborhoods has resulted in over 25,000 Palestinian deaths, two-thirds of whom are women and children.
The world community has overwhelmingly condemned these massacres. The UN has spoken loudly against the Israeli leadership. But by failing to stop Israel from their indiscriminate killings of innocent people, the U.S. is seen as complicit in the carnage. The pain of it all is crushing. The columnist Nicholas Kristoff said it well in a piece entitled, We must not kill Gazan children to try to protect Israel’s children.
On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice issued provisional measures in the case that South Africa brought against Israel for violating the genocide convention in this war in Gaza. The Court of Justice demanded that Israel take action to prevent genocide in Gaza, including orders to halt the killings of civilians, allow humanitarian aid, and hold public figures who incite genocide accountable for their actions.
On the question of allowing humanitarian aid to the starving population of Gaza and to prevent the incitement of genocide, the vote was 16-1, with even the respected Israeli judge Aharon Barack joining the majority. Despite the strong condemnation of the Court of Justice, Mr President you have failed to stand up to Prime Minister Netanyahu. Your unwavering support for the horrors perpetrated by Israel has undermined our position in the world and compromised our own values.
Mr. President please demand a cease fire.
Netanyahu has failed to protect his own people, or get the hostages released, and has shamed his country with his corrupt behavior. You can still be for Israel while also renouncing Netanyahu’s horrific policies that have killed so many innocents in Gaza. If you show that strength, you will separate yourself from his war of cleansing. It is the right thing to do.
David Bonior
David Bonior is a former Michigan Congressman, serving from 1977 until his retirement in 2003, and the author of six books. He currently resides in Washington DC.
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