Dear President Trump,

Today marks the date three very long years ago that I started saving the messages I was sending you on your contact page. I’d only been at it for a week at that point so I’ve got 99.4% of the 1,102 days worth of messages safely tucked away in one of two ginormous Word files and on my blog. I don’t remember my exact thinking back then, but I see now that in 2017 Presidents Day fell on February 20^th, our first pass at that holiday with you at the helm. I wouldn’t be surprised if my dismay and freak out over the nightmare of you holding court from the oval office on that Presidents Day triggered the decision to keep a running log of the evidence of my dismay.

I really don’t think, though, that I had the foggiest idea how bad things would be by now, in part because early on, it didn’t seem likely that you would stay in office nearly this long. The resistance at the time was full of reports of your campaign’s shady dealings with Russia and your all’s efforts to set up back channel communications with them. There were loud rumblings pointing to demonstrable cheating in several of the swing states. Plus, in light of the facts that you were so preposterously non-Presidential and that you’d managed to burn so many bridges during the primaries, many of us felt real hope that the GOP wouldn’t provide you with cover and you’d be back golfing full-time in no time.

Hah!
On us.

We completely underestimated the depth and breadth of your support and of your appeal. We had no idea what we were up against, at least not us regular plebes who don’t run in moneyed, power-broker circles. We naively thought that if someone were shown to have cheated his way into the oval office and was a complete jackass once in the oval office, he would have to forfeit said office and leave forthwith in disgrace.

Hah!
Again, on us.

It’s now clear that the king-makers’ will is not to be thwarted, that they have the capacity to keep hundreds of elected Congress people of the GOP-variety in check and off-balance in support of the goal of keeping the chief tool installed in office. The king-makers also seem to be doing a heck of a job keeping the other hundreds of elected Congress people of the Democrat-variety in check and off balance such that they are not able to counter you, the chief tool, effectively. Although this next bit is pure conjecture on my part (as if the foregoing is proven fact….), it seems that the king-makers are also doing wonders when it comes to throwing curve balls into the Democratic primary process. I mean, how is that we have two people who aren’t really Democrats and who represent polar opposite value systems currently in first and second place in the polling? It’s so dang surreal that we either truly don’t know which way is up or someone (or a group of someones) is messing with us by design. Actually, sadly, it could be both.

I’m tired and feeling dejected about all this big picture stuff that so doesn’t make sense. I don’t know how I’ll feel tomorrow, but I think for the rest of the evening I’m going to switch gears and both act and think locally. So goodnight.

May we find ways to safeguard democracy.
May we make space for happiness as an act of rebellion.
May we stay healthy and strong to include leaning on one another as needed.
May we allow ourselves peace and quiet sometimes.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson