Donald,

Ten more days.

Much as I’d like to be wrong, I’m not optimistic that Pelosi and Schumer are going to be able to get you out of office early. I am, however, glad they’re working on it in earnest and that a historic second set of Articles of Impeachment will be launched tomorrow. Nothing spells “loser” like being impeached twice…..

I also think Pelosi is making a good move in forcing Pence to publicly declare himself. I seriously doubt he’ll have the nerve to stand up to you (and risk completely alienating your base), but maybe, just maybe someone he trusts will have a solid heart-to-heart with him about the fact that his political career is over no matter what he does. Maybe that someone will tell him that given this reality, he might as well climb up to the high road and take it the rest of the way through this mess rather than staying completely mired in the muck sliming the lowest of low roads.

And pigs can fly.

Laura said on Thursday or Friday that she wishes everyone in the country could somehow get to not work or have to do anything that requires much energy or focus until you’re out of office, that it’s really wrong and beyond strange that most of us have continued to do our usual stuff when there was an attempted coup last Wednesday and another one in the works. Obviously there’s no way that most people who still have jobs can not do them or that parents can safely check out and not take care of their kids, but it’s pretty damn surreal that we’re mostly just trucking along like usual (or at least like Covid usual) when we’ve got thousands of whackos intent on overthrowing the government.

I don’t know what else to say about this. It’s all so mind-boggling. And exhausting. Sleep hasn’t been a thing lately and this afternoon I got a full-blown migraine. Sigh.

One small bit of good news, albeit not without some complicated feelings, is that I got the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday. I’m beyond grateful to be in one of the early priority groups as a healthcare worker given my heart condition, but there are so many people who are at much, much higher risk than I am that I have some mixed feelings about it. It was incredibly dismaying to see in the WP today that only 6.8% of the first priority groups and 2% of the population overall have been vaccinated so far. It’s also scary as hell to read about how so many healthcare workers are refusing the vaccine. If we can’t get healthcare workers to take the damn thing, how in the world are we ever going to convince the necessary 75-80% of the population to get vaccinated. Again, it’s all so mind-boggling. And heart breaking.

I sure as shit don’t want this to be true and objectively I don’t really think it is, but damn if it doesn’t feel like you’ve won. Right now, tired and disgusted as I am, it feels like maybe you’ve actually managed to undermine US – our democracy, our sense of responsibility to one another, our hope – so profoundly that we’re all but done.

Like I said – I don’t think this is true – but my current very cynical self thinks that in some ways it might be a relief if it were because I might then feel like it’s ok to stop pulling in the other direction. Clearly, I’m not in a great space. Clearly, we are all not in a great space.

May we safeguard hope because she’s not doing so hot right now.
May we be willing to be real about our challenges (including climate change, which looms large).
May we be strong even as we acknowledge our weakness and vulnerability.
May we accept that there are no guarantees that things are going to work out ok.

Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson