Dear President Trump,

I’m not sure what’s gotten into me the last few weeks (months?) with the much longer letters. I know they can be a drag and you’re probably even less likely to read them when they are longer rather than shorter, but since you don’t read them at all, I’m not going to stress about it.

I think part of what’s going on is that I’ve been really tired lately and I’m finding it hard to be incisive. And yes, I do see that if I were not spending so much time writing so many words, I’d have more downtime and more time for sleep – got it. Maybe having written it and put it out publicly, I can do something constructive with the insight. We’ll see. The other thing that’s hard to do when tired is step back and dispassionately edit my own work. I’m more apt to be lenient with myself and just kind of shrug and say ‘oh well, it’s long but it’s not thaaaat long…’ or something to this effect. Oh, and the other Tracy-specific-context thing of note is that I’m working on three big manuscripts that all have very tight word count constraints and I’m constantly whittling down and mercilessly editing during much of my work days lately. I bet that’s a big part of it.

And then there’s the reality that there’s just so, so much awful crap going on as your desperation notches up and you lash out and whip up and put down with every other breath. It’s stunning. And I don’t want to be stunned into silence so I think I’m overcompensating and going on and on. I’m also feeling pretty freaked out that time is running out fast to come up with a solid Democratic candidate and platform to oppose you and to carry us out of this mess and forward. It really is scary that it doesn’t (yet) feel like we are anywhere near close to achieving that critical goal.

A friend of mine also raised the specter last night that the Democratic candidate will have to deal with questions on the debate stage about how they would handle it when obstruction (and hopefully election interference too) charges are brought against you once you leave office. That is a nightmare minefield for anyone to have to navigate and that issue alone could make or break the election. I sure as hell hope the Democratic front-runners are thinking ahead on this issue and I sure as hell hope that the losers are willing to share their strategy ideas. This is an all-hands-on-deck issue that the Democrats can’t be seen to be waffling on even if it risks losing some votes. Personally I very much want you to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and am willing to lose some reddish-purple votes because it needs to be crystal clear that the kind of shit you’ve perpetrated must be sanctioned and punished. And, I realize it’s not that simple since this course could put a lot of Democratic House seats in jeopardy either in 2020 or in 2022. My friend thinks Nancy Pelosi is playing 3-level chess and I hope he is right.

There’s more. Way more. Your scary-ass rallies, your baiting/bullying Netanyahu into barring Talib and Omar, what Epstein’s death means to his accusers and his friends, arms deals written by devils, trade wars, humanitarian crises and violations that we are ignoring, North Korean missile launches, heartless and racist immigration policies, your all’s refusal to deal with the possibility of a recession, accelerated global warming and mass extinctions that you all are intent on exacerbating, your deteriorating mental status. Ok, the list could go on for pages and page, but you get the point. You all are a blight and in trying to cope with you it’s hard to find a middle ground anywhere between full-on extended rants and permanently checking out with back-to-back serial Netflix binges. Although I am going to stop here for today, I’m just giving you a head’s up that you (and I) are stuck with extended rants from me since I’m not going to check out and shut up.

May we be safe and free from harm, whether from a bullet or a legislator’s poison pen.
May we be happy and content with how we are conducting ourselves.
May we be healthy and strong so we can hang in as things heat up.
May we make peace with turmoil.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson