Dear President Trump,

Happy MLK Day to you and your family. I was glad to see that you and Mike Pence attended an MLK Day celebration today. Did it perhaps inspire you to unstick yourself from your asinine fixation on “the border wall” so that you can stop this government shutdown of yours that’s differentially negatively impacting African Americans? Almost certainly not, but you need to be reminded every which way from Sunday that the shutdown is your doing and that you need to put an end to it, regardless of what Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, or Sean Hannity say. You are harming and endangering far more people with this shutdown than will ever, in a thousand years, be harmed by people seeking asylum in the US. And you know it.

On a semi-related topic, I’ve become a fan of another new person – Michael Glennon, a law professor at Tufts. He has an Op Ed in the WP today laying out the argument for impeaching Pence if you are impeached for colluding with Russia or engaging in electoral fraud. I wanted to do a happy dance when I read it! You might (but probably won’t) recall how many, many moons ago I was lamenting the unfairness of the GOP getting to remain in power if it’s demonstrated that you took the presidency (as in stole it) using unfair and illegal means. Back then I didn’t dare hope that there would be an argument for getting rid of Pence in a Trump-impeachment-scenario if he isn’t shown to be compromised too. Glennon argues quite convincingly (to liberal me) that Pence can’t step into the presidency because he wouldn’t have been VP if you hadn’t cheated (assuming you did, in fact, cheat). In other words, a party cannot continue to benefit from the ill-gotten gains of its leader. If this is the case, I wonder what happens to all the judicial appointments and executive orders that you’ve foisted on us? Seems only fair that those would be rolled back too.

I realize we are still a very long way away from you leaving the White House in disgrace (amazing as that is), but what a relief that the next in line after the VP is the Speaker of the House. I think “President Pelosi” sounds pretty great – way (way) better than “President Ryan” (moot now, but wasn’t in the not so distant past) or “President McConnell” (and really, just OMG).

May we be safe from crooked politicians.
May we be happy to truly right their (your) wrongs.
May we figure out how the heck to root out political corruption.
May you and yours make peace with our melting pot nation – and open the government.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson