Dear President Trump,

Ever since Laura told me she saw an announcement on Twitter that the House Democrats are meeting today at 4pm EST to discuss whether they’ll bring articles of impeachment against you I’ve had the beginning of Edwin Hawkins’ “Oh Happy Day” song stuck in my head. Well, really I’m singing a modified version to myself that goes like “Oh maybe Happy Day / Oh maybe Happy Day” in light of the many times I thought we were poised to pry your greedy, grubby little hands off our throats and didn’t. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high only to have them dashed again. Given the plan to haul Maguire in for a closed hearing on Thursday to compel him to release the damn complaint, it actually seems unlikely that Pelosi will pull the plug on you today, but maybe, maybe, maybe today will be the happy day.

And yeah, all hell will break loose and the Senate won’t vote to convict you and you and yours will unleash a version of vitriol none of us would have been able to imagine in our darkest, meanest moments. And yeah, some of this fallout may very well be damaging in ways that we may later wonder whether it was worth it. And absolutely yes, I still maintain this is the correct path forward because not to impeach you is to hand you and your ilk all the keys to the kingdom, to roll over and say plunder away at will – take your time, oh and don’t forget to look over there, and over there, too. Not impeaching you is to say yes, presidents can get away with shooting and killing people on 5^th Avenue in broad daylight – go for it, we won’t stop you (I am riffing off of Pramila Jayapal’s assertion that we shouldn’t keep waiting for the smoking gun because you are the smoking gun). Essentially, to not impeach you is to further embolden you and your fellow bilkers and chaos sowers.

Witness the telling timing – we had Mueller’s flat testimony on July 24^th that you followed immediately the next day with your phone call to Zelensky wherein you allegedly made a promise to him that prompted an unprecedented whistleblower complaint, which we still have not seen, which in and of itself should be an impeachable offense (i.e., obstruction – I want to put that all in caps but you’ve ruined that gesture for me). I can almost see the little cartoon thought bubbles forming above your head that Wednesday evening as you took in how the media and right-wing pundits trashed Mueller’s performance; you must have gleefully asserted to yourself that you are f*cking golden, that no one can touch you and you can do whatever the hell you want. It’s funny though, when I try to put words in the thought bubble, I can’t pin down anything because all I hear is a maniacal, greedy chortle.

This morning the even happier maybe thought that popped into my head is that upon hearing that the House is bringing articles of impeachment against you, you would throw up your hands and say something to the effect of “Ok folks, I’m done. It was a nice run while it lasted, but I’m out of here.” Of course you won’t do that since it would betray your own fortune, the fortunes of the 1%-ers, and frankly doing so would probably get you killed. But really, it would be the most healing thing you could do for the country, which of course is another compelling reason you would never in a million years do it – that and your pride.

I need to stop now and get ready for work but aside from correcting typos, I’m going to let the above stand no matter what happens the rest of the day.

…..Here we are at the end of the day and it is indeed an “Oh, happy day” day and the ‘maybe’ gets to be officially pulled out. I don’t quite understand the timing (i.e., why today and not Thursday after Maguire fails to deliver or the House sees the whistleblower’s complaint and has a super saturated green light), but there is so, so much to nail you on that I’m just happy we are finally, finally, finally holding you accountable. Finally. Holding you accountable.

May we be safe from our desperately furious, furiously desperate POTUS.
May we be willing to hold tight and see this thing through.
May a goodly portion of the Republican base wake up for the sake of our democracy.
May the House Democrats be sure to put Pence under the microscope too.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson