Dear President Trump,

So I realize your demise wouldn’t solve all that much; you’ve got an entire machine churning behind you. Even though the machine operators probably couldn’t find anyone else quite so perfect as you, they are directing the hard to repair, truly damaging business of taking down democracy, not you. As I’ve said before, we mustn’t make the mistake of focusing too much on you since there was tons of rot that propelled you into office and tons more keeping you there, so in many ways, you are ancillary to the whole thing.

That said, you really are a terrific front man for the democracy demolition mission – I do have to give you that.

Yesterday I read Jennifer Rubin’s piece in the WP about how she doesn’t want to have sit through yet another repeat of your harangue about immigration and your predicted disingenuous call for bipartisanship and unity. Unfortunately though, I started the article thinking she’d titled it “Can we skip the State of the Union Response?” rather than “Can we skip to the State of the Union Response?” so I went into it feeling really worried that she was somehow turning on Stacey Abrams. Once I realized she was doing her usual take down of you, I went back and checked the title and found I’d missed that little tiny, yet key word “to” and relaxed as she went on to talk about how Abrams will focus on substantive policy ideas that are grounded in empathy and decency. She closes with: “When we see the Trump vs. Abrams contrast on Tuesday, we’ll get a taste of what it might be like to have a president we can respect, maybe even admire.”

As satisfying as it would be for a meteor to strike to hit you (like the meteor meets car sculpture at the Hirshorn), I have to believe it’ll be better for the country if you and the machine lose at the ballot box. Given that you (and sadly some Democrats with too much money) will use voter suppression and other crooked tactics in an effort to win, a leader in the Abrams mold will have to win by an overwhelming margin, but it’s still worth working for that outcome instead of just wishing you’d disappear.

This is not a very nice version of an LKM, but it’s the best I can do today…..

May you be safe so it’s clear that a positive change in leadership is a repudiation of you and your ilk.
Or if criminal indictments hit you first, may you be willing to step down.
May you stay healthy enough to lose or face charges.
May you not start a war when faced with loss or charges (or both).

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson