Dear President Obama,

As someone who has been doing the whole political commentary thing a relatively short time, I have to say that you have done more for my cause than I had ever hoped to accomplish. It’s not so much that I wish the total destruction of the Democratic Party – on the contrary, the Republican Party needs an adversary to keep them to the Right (despite their leadership’s best efforts). You, sir, have neutralized the effectiveness of your party while also keeping them so entrenched in their beliefs that they cannot recover so easily.

At first, I was incredibly terrified at what you represented. Your policies, your ideology, your absolute disregard for the idea of America in favor of your own thoughts on how America is the problem in the world – they all deeply scared me. I was worried about what you would do, and do be fair, you’ve tried your best to ruin a good thing we had going here. There’s been a lot of damage done, but over time I think America can recover.

But you know who’s not going to recover so quickly? The Democratic Party.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for doing what I, in a thousand essays, could not do. Thank you for pushing an agenda so extreme you alienated large swaths of the American public. Their distrust in government is higher than ever and there is no effort on your part to really fix that. You just push government further into people’s lives, and it hurts them. They feel that pain and they withdraw from the government.

Thank you for leading to the rise of the conservative revolution, which has led to some absolutely great lawmakers in Congress and across the nation. You gave us [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ], [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ], [mc_name name=’Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’P000603′ ], [mc_name name=’Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’L000577′ ], and many other good guys who are now standard bearers for the movement. Thank you for driving a wedge between the American people and incumbent politicians and making this happen.

Thank you for giving Republicans control of nineteen more governor’s mansions, sixty-nine seats in the House of Representatives, thirteen Senate seats, and more than nine hundred state legislative seats. From Congressman to dog catcher, you have made local government more Republican, state government more Republican, and (again, despte D.C. Republicans’ best efforts) you have given your opposing party control of both houses of Congress.

Thank you for making America realize that new entitlements are a terrible idea. Your signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act, remains deeply unpopular, is collapsing in several states, and has done everything you said it wouldn’t. You have helped the American people begin to realize government cannot solve all the problems of the world. You have done us a great service.

Yes, you and I have our political differences, and yes, you will probably reject that any of this is your fault, but I want you to know you have my heartfelt thanks in making my job easy and making my side of the political spectrum look good right now. I know that there is no such thing as a permanent political majority, and that some day my side will slip, but you’ve pushed that day back, and for that, you have my gratitude. Please do me a favor and double down on literally everything you have pushed and will push. Good luck and godspeed.

Thank you, Mr. President,

Joe Cunningham