Veto Your Own Bill

Update: Of course he didn’t veto the bill, the man couldn’t make the right decision if you handed it to him with a spotlight and a map.

Original Post: Mr. President, I will not pretend to admire your record. I did not vote for you, and I have watched your tenure with deep disappointment and, at times, outright anger. Too often you have traded moral clarity for political theater, prioritizing the next news cycle over the next generation. But even a flawed leader can occasionally do the right thing. And this is your moment to do exactly that.

The bill before you, your own bill, painstakingly crafted and steamrolled through Congress, is wrong. It is wrong for working families, wrong for the vulnerable, and wrong for the country. It codifies inequities you once promised to dismantle. It rewards powerful donors while leaving ordinary Americans to pick through the scraps.

You may see it as a legacy achievement. Let me be clear: it is not. It is a betrayal dressed up as reform. The country deserves better than a bill that fails to protect those most at risk, that gives polluters and profiteers an easy out, and that treats structural injustice as a minor inconvenience instead of a moral emergency.

This is your chance, Mr. President, to be bigger than your ambition. Yes, I know the calculation,  that a veto would damage your poll numbers, cost you a legislative win, enrage your allies. But sometimes real leadership means telling your allies they are wrong, even if you drafted the language yourself. Sometimes the job is about protecting the powerless, no matter how complicated or uncomfortable that may be.

You do not need my respect, Mr. President, but you do owe the American people your honesty. Deep down, you must know this bill is a mistake. Signing it will be a stain, not a triumph. You still have the power to stop that. You still have the power to choose courage over convenience.

Use your veto. Tell Congress to send you something worthy of the people who believed this nation could be more than a playground for the wealthy and well-connected. Show us, for once, that you can put country over your own fragile political fortunes.

You may never earn my trust. But you can earn a moment of redemption. And in an era starving for principle, that would matter, even coming from you.

Veto this bill. History will remember that. So will we.