An Open Letter to Trump Haters

One of these installed in at least five different cities

You probably think this is going to be a screed or a lecture. It isn’t. It’s an honest question, asked out of curiosity:

WHAT ARE YOU GETTING OUT OF ALL THIS?

Almost no one comments here, somI’m not expecting answers. I’m asking you to think about the question for yourselves, with some specificity. To wit:

Has the amount of emotion you’ve invested in hating Trump for 10 years made you happier?

Is your marriage better, your sex life more satisfying, your circle of friends wider, your career more prosperous, your state of mind more equable and fulfilling?

How has your perspective on life changed during the last 10 years?

Are you more or less optimistic, diversified in your leisure-time pursuits, content with the personal choices you’ve been making on a day-to-day basis, balanced between the frequently opposing pulls of intellect and emotion?

How has your self image (your amour-propre, as the French would say) evolved during this period?

For example, if you were to cast yourself as the protagonist of some great drama, would you see yourself in the role of David vs. Goliath, Norma Rae picking brave fights on the factory floor, Luke Skywalker coming of age in the quest for his connection to “the Force,” Captain Picard’s life-and-death see-saw battle with the Borg, Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road that leads to the unmasking of the Wizard, Frodo burdened with the One Ring that must be destroyed in the Cracks of Doom, Rosa Parks sitting all alone waiting for reinforcements in the front seat of the bus, Perry Mason working through all the twists and turns of a (nearly) perfect frame to expose the real killer on the stand in the final scene, Richard Kimble running for his life while trying to chase down the real killer, or Vera Miles looking to avenge the slaughter of her sister by a psychotic killer masquerading as a nice guy? How are any of those role plays working out for you 10 years in?

Do you like the company you’ve been keeping in your quest, whichever one it is?

They say that politics makes strange bedfellows. In real life, even the noblest causes aren’t always undertaken with a cowardly Lion who’s really brave, a scarecrow with no brain who’s actually smart when you get right down to it, and a tin man with no heart who’s as vital as you are. Where do you place yourself, morally and equitably, in an opposition to all things Trump that includes Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Liz Cheney, Jim Comey, Robert Mueller, Merrick Garland, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Arthur Engoron, Letitia James, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Kathy Griffin, Ellen Barkin, Madonna, Robert De Niro, Ilhan Omar, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Jasmine Crockett? Assuming that you have followed some of these allies in pursuit of the same goal, do you find yourself supporting them strongly, inclined to distance yourself from them when they pay an exorbitant career price for their anti-Trump efforts, or do you regard your own case as quite distinctly different from theirs? If the latter, is this difference a matter of your own personal superiority to the defeated ones, that if they had been more like you they wouldn’t have failed and gotten hurt? And do you experience any qualms about the fact that the defeated might regard you, personally, as a mere onlooker, a fair weather fan in the stands while others do the nasty parts of what must be done?

Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong about Trump and the people who support him?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this one. Even the most religiously devout have crises of faith. Times when, to restore their strength after the experience of woe, feel compelled to go back to first principles. Was there I time before I had unshakable faith, what inspired me to believe as I have been believing so devotedly for so many years? No one could fault any one of for experiencing, or having experienced, such a period of doubt and intense cross-examination of self. You belong to an army that has waged war without pity or respite for ten straight years, four of which have been back by the full weight of the Presidency, the Congress, and the mass media. Repeatedly over those years, the desired-for outcome has seemed within reach, almost inevitable, days even hours away, yet has come finally to naught. Is there any possibility that not all the lies told by this odious man are untrue, that he has been maliciously misquoted, slandered, hounded unfairly, and that his emergence from disgrace into runaway electoral victory is not just some accident or cruel twist of mischievous fate? If you have never experienced a moment of doubt, so be it. But if you have, what exactly reignited your passion? Yet another repetition of the usual charges and claims against him by a mass media outlet who’s now as heavily invested in his destruction as you are? Or don’t words and facts and figures enter into it anymore? Reaffirmation of faith is just as simple as declaring the faith as unchangeably, irreversibly, irremediably constant and without flaw. Even if some of the bedfellows have their flaws. Unlike the true third-part saints on the sidelines. Is that how you figure it now?

Is it at all possible in your universe that the world is a very different place from the one you have been seeing in your mind’s eye for 10 long years?

What if it were? Would that change anything in your life, your relationships, your career choices, your hobbies, your tastes, your interests, your plans, your hopes for the best possible future for you and your descendants? What if the differences between your universe and the one you’re denying that so many others live in had the power to make you happier, healthier, creative, and attractive to others?

What if.













 

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