An Open Letter to My/Our Loved Ones who Live in Trump Country

Dear loved ones who never much cared about politics...

Watercolor by my best friend, Judi Brenes

Politics was never really your thing. You vote in every election, but otherwise you’re into other stuff. Unfortunately, the 2024 election drama has been impossible to avoid. Your friends watch FoxNews and NewsMax, and they follow Trump’s blizzard of “truths” and “retruths” on his own social media platform TruthSocial. 

Your friends share with you all his darkest visions —Haitian immigrants eating pets, rapists/murderers/vermin infesting our country & poisoning the blood of “real” Americans, fetuses aborted/murdered AFTER they’re born, schools snatching your kids and overnight surgically making them trans. They fill you with tales about the “Biden Crime Family,” Kamala Harris’ communist connections, the evil Dr. Fauci who wanted you to get vaccinated and wear masks during the pandemic. They’re convinced that Trump won the 2020 election, despite all evidence (and 60 losing lawsuits) to the contrary. 

And they believe, against all evidence, that Trump tells the truth, that he is, as he claims, the ONLY one who can fix all your problems, that “never in the history of this country” was there more prosperity and less crime than when he was president, and “never in the history of this country” has there been a worse president than Biden, and that all wars will stop with just a word to his buddy Putin, or Netanyahu. 

So… when you scratch your head in doubt at some of the more outrageous claims, they tell you DO NOT BELIEVE THE FACT-CHECKERS, because the main-stream media is all “fake news.”  So there you are. What’s true? Who’s right? You’re caught in the middle—confused, anxious, not sure what or who to trust. It sucks.

I’ve been a political junkie for a couple of decades now—so I read, watch, listen across the political spectrum—the mainstream media, commentators from the right and left, even some science journals.

But I don’t need any of them to tell me what any normal person can see with their bare naked eyes:

Trump is a charlatan. A world-class liar and con-man. A paranoid narcissist with a bottomless need for attention and adulation. An empty suit, with no moral compass and a block of ice where most people have a heart (does he have a single real friend???). A demented elderly windbag who will do and say ANYTHING to stay out of prison. A man whose heroes are cruel dictators like Putin, Orban, Kim Jong Un. A felon with a vendetta for anyone who dares to call him out on his misdeeds and criminal acts (93 indictments, 2 impeachments… so far). And no, HE IS NOT JOKING.

Consider his most prominent supporter—the richest man on the planet, Elon Musk. Other billionaires cluster around him as well. Do you for one minute think they have the well-being of little old you and little old me in mind as they salivate over installing this needy puppet? Really? Give me a fucking break. They’re drooling over the prospect of more tax breaks for themselves and less regulation of their businesses.

There’s a good reason why HUNDREDS of prominent Republican are warning us to steer clear of a second Trump presidency—some even calling him a fascist—and why they are voting for Kamala Harris. 

Now, you may not think the black lady would make a good president, but she is whip-smart, articulate, organized, compassionate, SANE, well-respected and experienced. She has never committed a crime, nor has she stiffed a vendor or tried to sell you crypto currency, a bible printed in China, or Kamala-imprinted gold sneakers. I bet you never bothered to watch any of her speeches or the one Presidential debate with the two of them. I recommend you give her a look—and while you’re at it, watch a Trump rally or interview for the sake of comparison. 

Finally, think about the issues Trump likes to focus on, and how they affect you personally. Are illegal immigrants taking over your town, your hospitals, your schools and all your jobs? Does some stranger’s sexual preference or gender expression impinge on your own well-being? Should women be able to control their own bodies and futures? 

When I hear Trump talk about “very bad people, sick people, radical left lunatics,” I feel the threat personally. I’m none of those things—but to a despot, anyone who opposes him falls into that category—journalists, judges, election officials, Democrats. He’d like to have the National Guard or military “handle” us, along with millions of those vermin immigrants he plans to round up and deport. 

This is Hitlerian talk. 

Please do your country and yourselves a favor. Give democracy a chance. Vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. And while your at it, go for the Dems all the way down the ballot. The GOP needs a shellacking so it comes to its senses, dumps Trumpism, and rebuilds itself into a viable party once again.

PUT YOURSELF IN THE WAY OF BEAUTY

Even though I’m not in the mood for beauty right now, I need it more than ever, and I bet you do too. So here are two virginal Sasanqua camellias in bloom near me.