A recent Leelanau Enterprise letter to the editor from a Northport resident published earlier this month is receiving national attention across social media and is continuing to gain traction.
The letter, titled “Thanks, Mr. President,” is timely considering the upcoming general election is next week, and was authored by Doug Whitley. It was printed in the Oct. 15 Enterprise edition, but available to viewers online via the publication’s digital edition by Oct. 14.
The first day the letter was posted on Oct. 14 via Facebook and available to readers, it was estimated to have been shared/reposted more than 16,000 times, viewed more than a million times, and tracked more than 110,000 likes/reactions — all within an hour.
Whitley, who is not active on any social media platforms, said “it’s been a lot of fun” to hear about the national response from readers regarding his letter. He said his friends have been reaching out to him over the past two weeks since it was printed, updating him on the letter’s reach. He had no idea how the letter would be received, he added, but he’s glad to hear that it has resonated with so many.
“I’ve enjoyed hearing from people who know me and see it and then reach out to send me a note, and I got a half dozen or so of those in the first three or four days, but now this national exposure that you’ve told me about is even more fun,” Whitley said. “I like the idea of having a moment of fame in an election year.”
Will Harper, a fellow Northport resident who originally took a screenshot of Whitley’s letter and posted it on his group Facebook page “Northport, Michigan Neighbors,” said he thinks part of the reason the letter resonates is because it has a great flow and reads really clearly and nicely.
“Everybody already knows all this stuff, but to have it put together in this nice, concise list, it just fits in your pocket and it was just really well written,” Harper said. “I’ve read a lot of Doug’s stuff and this is probably the best thing I’ve seen coming from his keyboard. He’s a good writer, but this is exceptionally good, and part of it is the simplicity.”
Just this week, Robert Reich, a notable political commentator/ professor and the former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton administration from 1993-1997, reposted and shared Whitley’s letter to his Facebook page, gaining over 59,000 reactions within a day. Along with Whitley’s letter, Reich wrote the caption “Trump keeps saying, ‘Pretend I’m on the ballot’ ahead of the midterms. Here is one man’s response. What do you think?”
Other prominent public figures have also resonated with Whitley’s piece, such as actress Mariska Hargitay, who is best known for her role on the NBC show, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” She posted the letter on her Instagram with no caption on Oct. 19, and it has since garnered more than 78,000 reactions and thousands of shares/reposts.
Whitley thinks the letter has resonated with as many people as it has for a couple of reasons. The first is that it was a very short piece, noting the Enterprise’s 250-word count limit for letters to the editor. Due to limited space, Whitley said he made sure to include many of the troubling facts about the current administration’s actions, adding that the sarcasm contrasting with the facts presented was likely another reason people resonated.
For example, his first sentence addresses the U.S. president directly and continues with the facts: “Donald Trump asked me to vote as if he is on the ballot. Gladly. Thanks for war with Iran, disrupting oil, erratic tariffs, unraveling global economics, and raising the cost of living for Americans.”
“You know (the sentence), ‘thank you Mr. President for all the chaos you’ve created,’ and I think a lot of people feel that… both because I lay out a lot of facts that people want to be reminded of or appreciate being reminded of, and I do it in a way that is sarcastic, which I think resonates and rings a lot of bells,” he said. “It wasn’t difficult to sit down and put it into an email, there’s just so many things that are troubling about the way the current administration governs.”
Whitley has been a writer throughout his professional career in the public policy arena and has written numerous reports, messages, speeches, and essays over the years. This includes a stint as a monthly columnist for Crain’s Chicago Business, as a guest columnist for Illinois Issues Magazine, occasional op-eds in Illinois newspapers, and routine president’s messages to the members of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. For those in Leelanau Township, he’s well known for the Public Policy Essay Pamphlets that he puts together.
Whitley said while he is a conservative republican at heart, he’s never supported Trump and his administration, adding that he could never get past Trump’s character issues. As a former Eagle Scout, Whitley said there’s no way Trump would satisfy the character expectations of an Eagle Scout, a rank that represents strength of character, leadership, and a deep commitment to community and nation, among other attributes.
“I like and support Republicans, I’ve got that kind of history, but I am not a fan of Donald Trump and never have been,” he said.
Although Whitley never expected the small piece to be as popular as its proven to be, he’s happy to see that it’s got people talking and thinking about what’s happening in the country.
“If the letter helps prompt other people to think about things that they also are upset about that were not in the letter, all the better. I think that’s part of the reason why we do these things and write these things is to try and get other people to think critically about what they’re seeing,” he said.
