Nov 9, 2016

Mr Drumpf,

It is Wednesday morning, post-election Tuesday, and I am scared. Very scared. Deeply frightened for my country, community, my family and myself. For the last year and a half I have watched you shamble across the landscape, bellowing your fears and racial epithets, and listening to the roar of the answering crowds. My heart darkened, but never my belief that justice and truth would win out, that enough of my fellow citizens would unite to throw back the nativist racism you represented. And, now, on this sunny morning in the Pacific Northwest, I am finding that my worst fears are realized.

It all started with your candidacy, the escalator descent into a crowd of paid extras, to the tune of martial music. Some of the very first words out of your mouth were words of racial hatred and fear, and then you promised to build a wall. A wall. Which is not only a ludicrous notion, but flies in the face of centuries of the American tradition of welcoming immigrants from all over the world. Roundly criticized you doubled-down and moved on to recommending a religious test for immigrants, which again, spits in the face of honored American tradition. What you offered for political discourse was ugly, bullying bombast, without a shred of rational discourse; your usual stump speech was a mash of made up words, nonsensical sloganeering, and the blatant hustling of your fucking brand. In other words, what we got, from you, was the shrill huckstering of a carny barker.

But it seemed it wouldn't last. Surely in the primaries you would get bumped off by a more disciplined, more "reasonable", and articulate candidate. And so it went, and got worse by the day.You were absolutely correct when you bragged that you could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and your supporters wouldn’t care.During the course of your campaign you pretty much insulted just about every political and social constituency there is. The disabled, women, veterans (which includes me), people of color, LGBTQ folks, and even your own core, white constituency. Your performances during the primary televised debates were a travesty, an embarrassment and wretched preview of what was to come, as you lied about your record, your opponents records, interrupting anyone who spoke against you while lobbing insults at your opponents and the debate moderators. You proceeded to break every single rule of political decorum, with such arrogance it was astonishing. No, this does not make you some kind of political maverick, bucking against the Washington establishment and elites, it makes you a boor. And how could we take you seriously as a candidate when its terribly obvious you have zero respect for anyone, and certainly not our political process. Your rallies were open hate-fests as you dog-whistled racism, when you weren't openly speaking hate speech. You whipped up your followers, openly encouraging them to bring violence and physically attack those who spoke out against you. You seemed to be saying "Lets bring back an America where African-Americans, Gays&Lesbians, and women know their place", while trumpeting an appropriately vague slogan, "Make America Great Again", that could be taken to mean just about anything, but what you really seemed to be saying, and what your followers heard, "Lets make America Jim Crow land again; let's make America dangerous for Gays and Lesbians again; lets make America the land of 2nd class citizenship for anyone not white, male, heterosexual AGAIN".

So the only public good you offered was sending that milk-sop wet-brained weasel Ted Cruz screaming and crying into the weeds, waving his arms and sobbing like the petulant child he is. Its no wonder he is the most reviled member of Congress, per a straw vote of his peers, but I digress. However I am serious, that really is the only public good you have done this entire election season. Usually election seasons not only consist of rallies to whip up the base, robocalling and endless television ads, speechifying and sloganeering. Its all that and its position papers. Its all that and meetings with policy advisers to hammer out strategic foreign policy positions and then announce those positions in order to spark a civil discourse with the populace, to foster a debate on the great and important issues of our time. None of which you did. Absolutely nothing. Because you have nothing of import to offer, apparently. Given ample opportunity to discuss, substantively discuss, say....global climate change, or our position regarding the Middle East, or our trade policies in the Pacific Rim, what we got is that global climate change is a Chinese hoax, or that our trade policies are all bad, or....nothing. So, to sum up this point, you offer nothing of useful debate, instead filling our civil discourse with, again, insults, twitter tirades, braggadocio, and hot air. Why? Because apparently you cannot be bothered to pay attention long enough to listen and absorb the issues.

And dont get me started on your convention. Or would you rather have it referred to as your "coronation". Certainly you exhibited all the hallmarks of the demagogue and dictator, as you piled on the hate of your opponent and any other scapegoat that came to mind, such as "terrorists" or "immigrants"; really any bogeyman you could hang hate and fear on. So it became not so much a political convention as a shitshow of non-stop xenophobia, religious bigotry, negativism, nativism, sexism, and outright racial hatred. Which, sadly enough, became your template for the debates, where you continued your disgusting trend of bullying, outright lying, obfuscating, deflecting, and projecting your own worst sins onto your opponent. Better that than actually be truthful and honest, because as we all know by now, if you were to actually tell the truth, the honest truth, there would be no way you would have been able to squeeze out enough votes to win you the Electoral College.   

You attacked a Gold Star family. You attacked a former beauty queen. You were caught, on tape, admitting to being a sexual predator, and then dismissed it as simple "locker room talk". Way to go sir, we are now in a age where sexual assault can be dismissed, by the president-elect, as boys behaving like boys. I am sure your daughters and women across the land can sleep soundly knowing that you have their best interests in your heart. 

And so now it has come to this sorry and pathetic state of affairs. We have, as president-elect, a proven liar, a bald-faced hypocrite, a venal huckster too lazy to study up on the issues, a megalomaniac with an outsized ego, who will have access to the nuclear codes, while missing the empathy, intelligence and the patience needed to match these awesome responsibilities. And people are scared. Folks across this country, your fellow citizens, are frightened of what the future will hold for them, as already we are seeing reports from all over with gay bashing, attacks on minorities, women, and anyone looking different from what is perceived as the norm. And we all remember your promises to lock up your opponent, and we all remember that you keep enemies lists in your head. So know this, sir, and keep it close: if you come for immigrants, you come for me; if you come for the gays and lesbians, you come for me; if you take away the rights of women around healthcare and abortion, you also take away my rights, and I hate having my rights taken away. As you stand for everything that this country is not, I stand against you.

As I finish this up, its now Friday evening, November 11. Veterans Day. As a US Navy vet myself, I proudly served to protect the liberties and rights enshrined in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. You promise to do away with much, if not all of it. So, today, I am proudly standing with the majority of the electorate who voted against you. So when you are looking for someone to add to your enemies list, please add me. Nothing would make me prouder. 


Daniel Johnson
Seattle WA