Dear President Trump,

The other day as we were leaving the grocery, Laura and I both spotted a bunch of small pots of iron vine displayed on a tiered table, each plant twisted around a metal circle suggesting that they are simply decorative little darlings that will docilely grace your yard. We looked at each other and guffawed in unison – we have iron vine growing on our North fence and while it started out tiny and innocent looking, it has become an unruly behemoth that has to be whacked back regularly lest it take over the garage and the house. Today during a lull in the rain I was doing some of that whacking, trimming it off the string of lights it was threatening to pull down and back away from the house, again.

As I was doing this chore, I thought about how often it is that we think something is a good idea, or at least an ok idea, only to find out later that it was really a terrible idea and had we known how things were going to go, chances are we would not have chosen that thing in the first place. I know it’s sort of a “duh” kind of insight, but it’s germane to one of the many lame arguments you all are lobbing out into the Fox-o-sphere against the impeachment/removal trial. If I understand this particular argument correctly, you all are maintaining that you shouldn’t be removed from office because it would overturn the 2016 election results and subvert the will of the people. George Conway lambasts this line of reasoning in yet another WP editorial today and he does a good job of showing how absurd it is to argue that a president (you or someone down the road) can’t be removed no matter what he or she does.

Sadly, as I said yesterday, you’ve so snowed your peeps and have the GOP so wrapped that most all of them can’t seem to admit even to themselves that they have buyers’ remorse over you, but surely there are a few who are lamenting their Trumpian lever pulls now that they know what you have done. They are finding out the hard way that “The People” are not infallible and “The People’s Will” is not some God-given sacrosanct thing chained to the altar of “No Change Ever.” People mess up. People get themselves into things they realize later they shouldn’t have. And situations change – what might have been an ok-ish relationship at the beginning can become a nightmare that one or both parties (or all parties, depending on the circumstance) are lucky to get out of alive.

Really, though, millions of us saw from the get go that you would be a disastrous POTUS. In fact, 3 million more of us fervently believed this to be true than the number that supported you, and these numbers further undermine your stupid “Will of the People” argument. So how about you let that one go and focus instead on some sort of real defense? Oh right, I know – you don’t need to bother with such nonsense because you’ve bribed/threatened/coerced the jury and you know you have a lock on acquittal. In a sane, sensible version of the universe this would be another solid reason for getting rid of a POTUS who is threatening to smother the country with corrosive corruption. I’m afraid, though, that we don’t live in that universe anymore, at least not right now.

May we be safe even in this very sub-par version of the universe.
May we be willing to keep a hold on MLK’s dream of the Beloved Community.
May the scales drop from the eyes and hearts of those blinded by racism and fear.
May we make peace with the fact of mistakes so that we can fix them.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson