Dear President Trump,

Who got stuck with trying to convince you that you couldn’t give your usual performance at the Wisconsin rally last night, that you couldn’t incite violence or dredge up the usual spiky crowd pleasers? Did they make you wear a remote controlled electric shocker so they could give you a jolt if you started spewing your usual hateful rhetoric? Your 5-year-old sounding “See how nice I’m behaving” comment was truly pathetic, and a lot like the kindness cue card you used in the meeting with the Parkland mass shooting survivors. OMG.

It’s beyond me why the media and the think tank pundits are saying you acted “presidentially” at the rally. Is the bar so low now that we should be happy when our president tells us he’s refraining from going after his opponents in full throttle divisive ways but immediately says all the same stuff sotto voce? That’s not presidential – that’s blowing a dog whistle. It’s disgusting that so many talking heads are giving you a pass. I’m worried they are bending over backwards to conform with your demand that they lighten up on you. If so, we are hosed.

Let’s be real here. You’re enough of a sociopath that you could effectively pretend you care if you wanted to, you could stay in role for two hours if it were important to you. You choose not to make the effort because you know it would confuse your base (and it would be way less fun for you). You all have an implicit agreement that you will stoke their (perceived) righteous fury at every possible opportunity and in turn they will stroke your ego, prop you up, and allow you to use the office of the presidency for your personal gain. If you were to go rogue on them and behave in a normal presidential manner or even a normal human manner in the face of an awful event involving people you profess to hate, it would upset the devil’s pact you all made; they might even turn on you. Your base needs you to act like a jerk towards everyone you’ve agreed is in your mortal enemies camp. You might put a little lip gloss on that pig, but there’s no real nuance there, no chance your base will get confused and worry that you might be getting soft. No sir, not you, not a soft bone in your body. Your mother would be proud, right?

May we be safe from sociopaths like you.
May we be willing to call you out fully.
May we hold on to what is and is not healthy presidential behavior.
May you not resort to starting a war.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson