Dear President Trump,

Usually when song lyrics pop into my head they are from whatever the most current Soul Choir piece is and so “I’ve got a feeling,” which I told you about the other day, has been on almost constant personal-replay for weeks. Catchy and sticky as that song is, this morning when I was thinking about last night’s WP headline, “Trump is opposed to having White House aids testify to Congress,” another song supplanted it, and it’s not a spiritual. Nope – it’s the song Jean Knight took to #1 on the Billboard Charts in the summer of 1971, “Mr. Big Stuff.” Can you hear it? It’s certainly catchy and to my mind, it fits the current moment to a “T”. Here’s the chorus in case you aren’t coming up with it:

Mr. Big Stuff
Who do you think you are
Mr. Big Stuff
You’re never gonna get my love

I’m all over the “You’re never gonna get my love” part for sure, but today I’m especially appreciating the “Who do you think you are” line because seriously, who do you think you are? My thought last night when I saw that WP headline and then read the article was “and…?” – as in, so what if you’re “opposed” to WH aids testifying before Congress – that’s not your call. You don’t get to unilaterally determine that Congress, a co-equal branch of government, cannot investigate you, your campaign, or your administration. Full stop. You may want the US to be a dictatorship, and you and Vladimir may be doing everything in your collective power to shove us in that direction, but that is not what we are. No, you have to deal with the fact that we have built in safeguards that anticipated this very sort of problem in the form of a co-equal branch of government with the responsibility and the power to oversee and monitor the Executive branch.

You all are doubling down on the overreach argument, whining that you were magnanimous in having never refused the Special Counsel a single sheet of paper (which I don’t believe for a second) or minute of desired testimony (except yours), claiming you were transparency personified. It’s a great tactic using this ultra thin transparency act coupled with the claim that the report totally exonerated you. Truly, it’s a slick way to rally your base and to give cowardly GOP Congress members flashy talking points. I honestly don’t think it will work to derail the needed investigations, but you do continue to score points for skillful deployment of devious and deceitful rhetoric.

May we be safe from politicians with things to hide.
May we be happy to be “broken records” insisting on full accountability.
May we care for the ailing health of our democracy.
May we have the courage to be peace in our opposition to the creep of Trumpian tyranny.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson