Dear President Trump, In the midst of all my imagining of a democratic society that finally fully embraces empowerment for all of America’s diverse peoples, it occurred to me that I needed a better historical handle on what motivated White men to enfranchise Black men and then eventually men to enfranchise women. All I knew … Continue reading History lessons
History
Revolutionary evolution
Dear President Trump, The Poem-a-Day this morning is by Todd Fredson and is entitled [Erratum: Found Ecology Piece], the brackets being part of the title (you can read it here if you want: https://poets.org/poem-a-day/ for today’s date). It’s a short poem and seems simple enough, but it’s had me thinking hard all day. It’s nominally … Continue reading Revolutionary evolution
It is our duty to overthrow despotism
Dear President Trump, While we wait to see what those tapes and other detritus that Lev Parnas has handed over to the House Intelligence Committee reveal about you and Rudy, I’m going to finish out the first section of the Declaration of Independence, which is basically the poetic portion most relevant today. The last two … Continue reading It is our duty to overthrow despotism
Revolt until we get it right
Dear President Trump, Remember how the other day I offered a modest re-write of the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence, swapping in ‘people’ for ‘men’ and ‘we are endowed by Creation’ for ‘ they are endowed by their Creator’? Well, I’d like to move us on to the next major sentence fragment. It … Continue reading Revolt until we get it right
‘Truthbusters’
Dear President Trump, You are actually way ahead of me on this, but it finally dawned on me that while those who are testifying before Congress during the impeachment inquiry are doing so under oath, the people questioning them are not doing so under oath. I don’t believe you’ve framed the issue this way; instead … Continue reading ‘Truthbusters’
No, “men” does not now mean “all people”
Dear President Trump, Did you tune in this morning to Nunes’s screed about the impeachment inquiry into your Majesty? I couldn’t bring myself to listen and only watched the live closed-captioning for a few minutes – where do you find these louts? Over the course of the hearings thus far it’s almost been funny watching … Continue reading No, “men” does not now mean “all people”
Early voting rights and lack thereof
Dear President Trump, Yesterday I told you that I want to refocus my attention on the work we’ll need to do after you’ve finally high-tailed it out of office. We have such a tremendous amount of very, very hard work to do together to close all the loopholes you’ve managed to exploit and to do … Continue reading Early voting rights and lack thereof
Compare and contrast: “She did what she could” and “Because he could”
Dear President Trump, It feels like folly to start a letter this morning on anything other than the first day of open hearings in your (very own) impeachment inquiry, but I’m betting there will be plenty of opportunity later in the week, or even today, to send you missives on that topic. What I want … Continue reading Compare and contrast: “She did what she could” and “Because he could”
What did you do? What will you do?
Dear President Trump, Well, today marks the 1,000th consecutive day that your inbox has received a letter from me. Next Saturday will mark the 1,000th consecutive day that I kept copies of the letters, but I think today is the real anniversary. Would I have taken on this daily correspondence to you if I’d known … Continue reading What did you do? What will you do?
Fresh eyes and fresh beliefs
Dear President Trump, Sometimes the Twitter-verse does weird stuff with time like it did yesterday when Laura excitedly read me a Tweet about 19 African American women having been elected into judgeships in Harris County, Texas (Houston area) and how this means that now 25 of the 75 judges in that county are African American … Continue reading Fresh eyes and fresh beliefs
Daily Trump Letters 