Dear President Trump,

Happy Articles of Impeachment Announcement Day.

Yes, it’s a bummer the Democrats only went with abuse of power and obstruction tightly focused on your dealings with Ukraine, but the strategy of keeping things simple and straightforward is not unreasonable given how adept you and yours are at obfuscation and misdirection. I’m thinking that by zeroing in on these two things, Pelosi et al. are hoping they can use the broken record communication strategy to stay on point rather than risk being drawn into arguing other (still bad and really quite simple) examples of your wrong doing with the yappy-dog Republicans who are intent on yipping and nipping at every stray twitch.

Just to be on the record with this, the bigger bummer, the huge, gigantic, horrible-for-the-country bummer, is that it’s just the Democrats and a tiny handful of Independents who are bringing the articles of impeachment forward. I know this is stating an in our faces ‘duh’ sort of thing, but even beyond how terribly you’ve behaved and how destructive it has been and still is for our democracy, the actions of the current slate of Republican congress-people are absolutely shameful. I had the idea of sending postcards to all of them that say “VOTE YOUR CONSCIENCE”, but Laura said they’d never see them so it would be a waste. Sadly, even if they did see them, sending such a message would still be a waste since conscience and moral rectitude do not inform their actions in the slightest.

A third bummer that was summed up incredibly well on Twitter the other day by someone is:

“The clumsy obviousness of his corruption makes it all the more infuriating.”
by @grudging1

Nails it right on the head, doesn’t it? If you and Vladimir were slick and clever and really capable of doing all this nefarious stuff so no one was the wiser, it would probably be a lot more damaging. However, the fact that you and your goons look to be a bunch of bumbling idiots really is galling. It also makes the Republican party’s willingness to sing along with whatever stupid ditty you assign them all the more repugnant.

And still – your strategy is pretty much working for you. I’m not sure I can articulate all the layers, but I think it goes something like this:

You, POTUS, are aware that what you’re doing is wrong
and
you believe the best way to get away with it
is to be brazen and obvious about it
since
why would you do something out in the open that you know is wrong?
Then,
for good measure
you throw in a hefty dose of “what-abouts”,
false allegations,
and
juicy conspiracy theories.
Crucially,
your props
know that what you’re doing is dangerous and wrong
and
that all the “what-abouts”,
false allegations,
and conspiracy theories are utter horseshit.
Plus,
they know
that you know
these things are dangerous and wrong
and
that your “what-abouts”,
false allegations,
and conspiracy theories are utter horseshit.
And
they don’t care.
And
they are diligently working to convince as many of us as they can
that
whatever you, POTUS, do is righteous and fine
and
that what you’re saying about your “enemies” is true
because
why would you do anything wrong out in the open
or
claim anything that isn’t true?

I think I’ve got the basic architecture of the approach, but if I’ve missed anything key, let me know. Of course, what’s left out are specific motives, the money you all are making, and whatever blackmail and threats you’re managing, all of which are surely laced through the whole mess thicker than snot. Even still, just the bare bones show how slick and sick this little circle jerk is. If there’s an afterlife, you all are not going anywhere pretty.

May we be safe from lying leaders.
May we be willing to support integrity and honor.
May we hold steady through the mayhem.
May we all make peace with truth-based reality.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson