I am writing this blog to those of you who will probably never read it. It’s possible that if some of my friends share this post, more of you than I think might read it. I hope so.
But I’m also writing it as an exercise in catharsis because of your continuing support for Donald Trump. According to various polls, more than 40% of you still approve of the job he’s doing as president.
I cannot begin to describe the depth of my confusion and disappointment, and at times serious anger, because of that support.
The nagging, persistent, even relentless question that keeps running in my head is, “What happened to you?”
What happened to you that was so bad, that made you so cynical about American politics, that would lead you to support a man like Trump, someone you cannot say anything substantively positive about that is based in fact.
He has failed at everything he has tried to do, including being a decent human being, except in pulling the wool over the eyes of people like you.
In the first 4 months of his second term he is wrecking an economy the rest of the world envied just as he ran six casinos in the ground, is big time into a reign of revenge against his perceived enemies, has appointed cabinet members who have no idea what they’re doing, and is illegally deporting immigrants to other countries, even foreign prisons, knowing most of them are here legally and are as law abiding as you are.
On top of all of that, Trump is literally selling access to himself to the highest bidder, an open grift the likes of which we have never seen in the history of the presidency.
What in the world could have happened to you that would make you think any of this was okay, or none of it was important enough to rethink your support of him?
You know what I am talking about. You even know the things he did before you ever voted for him – having an affair with a porn star at the very time Melania was at home caring for a weeks old Barron, joking about sexually abusing women, making disgusting sexual comments about dating his own daughter, actually being convicted of sexually molesting E. Jean Carrol.
There was a time when even you would have said that anyone who refuses to believe the countless allegations and proven crimes he has committed is being intentionally blind. You are now that person.
I want to believe that deep down you would never want your children or grandchildren to grow up to be like him. I mean, the man lies about anything and everything. Hardly a role model for anyone.
I remember you telling me how upset you were when you found out your teenage daughter had lied to you about where she went one night with a boy you did not want her around. It wasn’t what she did that upset you, but the fact that she lied about it.
Now that she’s grown and has a daughter of her own, what do you think she thinks about your support for a man who never tells the truth?
I also remember when you were upset about a local businessman you knew who was acquitted of a financial crime you knew he had committed. You told me it wasn’t right that people with money and power got away with doing things ordinary people couldn’t get away with, but here you are supporting a president who doesn’t believe any rule or law applies to him, not even the Constitution.
He’s even said in a televised interview that he wasn’t sure he was obligated to follow the Constitution even though he took an oath of office pledging to the country he would.
But, then, before he said that he has already proved the Constitution meant nothing to him when he pardoned every one of the January 6 insurrectionists who attacked our Capitol and the democracy it symbolizes.
I just don’t understand why you’re okay with that. What happened to bring you to a point in your life where honor and integrity and decency mean nothing to you?
You once believed in America, even serving in the Navy when you got out of high school, and now you’re following a man who was a draft dodger and has turned the meaning of patriotism into a meaningless slogan like Make American Great Again, with no clue about what true greatness is.
But as confusion and disappointing as all of that is to me, both are made worse, especially the confusion, by the fact that you support Trump’s cruel and lawless deportation policies as if he is actually getting rid of the criminals he says have invaded our country.
How can you actually believe that when last week he commuted the 50 year prison sentence of a businessman named Paul Walczak who stole Social Security, Medicare, and federal income taxes from his employees to enrich himself, and also pardoned reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley who were serving federal prison sentences after being convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion.
Both of those happened after Trump had granted clemency to 74 year old Larry Hoover who was serving multiple life sentences in federal prison for crimes he committed as the mob leader of a Chicago gang called the Gangster Disciples, and on top of that gave an unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht who operated Silk Road, the dark web’s largest marketplace for the sale of illegal drugs.
I have known you all my life and I cannot imagine what happened to you that would make you support such an obvious abuse of the presidential pardoning power, especially since two of them were the results of relatives of the criminals paying a million dollars to attend a Trump dinner.
But I think the thing that bothers me the most about your support for this man is the impact of his dismantling of the USAID agency that was feeding the poorest of the world and providing medicine to keep them alive, most of whom were infants and children.
People on the ground in these countries are saying that upwards of 300,000 children have either already died or will die soon because of what Trump has done. And all of the aid we were providing was excess food we could not use and medicine we did not need. All of it is now going to waste.
How in the name of common decency can you be okay with that? I simply don’t understand. How is it that none of this matters to you anymore? I know it once did. What changed? And I’m not talking about your politics. I’m talking about your moral conscience. How is it that you don’t see that what Trump is doing is no longer about politics. It’s about moral standards, something you once cared about.
We were once friends, in the same family, went to the same church, watched our kids play ball together, worked for the same company, but now it’s as if we live on different planets.
The tragedy underneath all the other tragedies this man is causing is the fact that when he is finally gone, and one day he will be, the damage he will have done to our country – yours and mine – will be something your children and grandchildren and mine will have to try to undo.
Do you ever wonder what they will think of you for supporting Donald Trump? They will eventually know the full extent of his reign of terror, and will also know that you refused to believe any of it was true.
Do you think they will wonder why you didn’t?
I think a lot these days about how my children and grandchildren will remember me. If they remember me with any pride, I hope it will include the fact that at this critical moment in American history I refused to support Donald Trump and urged others to do the same.
I still remember the words former Republican Representative Liz Cheney spoke on June 9, 2022, at the beginning of the public hearings of the House Select Committee on January 6 when she said: “Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
In light of your continuing approval of what Donald Trump is doing today, and with all you know about him, how do you think you will be remembered?
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