Dear Donald:
We likened your campaign to the Titanic — a marvel of the modern world, incapable of sinking. We watched every public appearance with nervous excitement. We expected every blunder to unseat you, every misstep to drag you into a field of icebergs. We expected a crash and a burn. You, like so many TV villains before you, intrigued us. We were fascinated by your power, by your confidence. You were saying the things we were all secretly thinking — our internal grumbles became your talking points. We shook with glee when you insulted other candidates, when you talked about corruption and money in politics. We took to calling you The Donald, and we wondered what The Donald would say next. We performed character studies of you in our minds: What made The Donald tick? How could somebody with the enigmatic locks of a troll doll, the orange veneer of a jack-o-lantern and so few ideas, poll so well? We knew of your success and you made us well aware of it. We couldn’t have been happier with what you were doing for our TV time. But then — it happened.
We realized you were just an extra loud voice in an incredibly loud room.
You wouldn’t believe the devastation it wrought on us. You were asked questions about Syria and Iran and you produced poor excuses for answers. You said you’d “know more about the problems of this world” by the time you became president. You don’t already? We balked. Your foreign policy would be to “get along” with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping? You would gather the “finest team that anybody has put together,” to “solve a lot of problems”? We wondered at the efficacy of such statements. We began to doubt you.
It’s not like we were all already on your side. Some of us supported you from the beginning. Some of us decided to watch your campaign from a safe distance, to avoid shrapnel and stray embers from the potential fallout. Some of us hated you from the beginning. Some of us have hated the things you’ve said: About immigration, about immigrants, about women. Undoubtedly, some of us will support you ‘til the inevitable, bitter end. But most of us — those responsible for this letter — have had enough.
We withdraw our silent support of The Donald.
It’s time we put this antagonist to rest. The base that
supports you is not representative of the Republican Party — it just makes them look bad. Republicans become synonymous with racism and sexism every time you take the stage. Come primary season, regardless of your presence in the race, we will think of Republicans as the party of The Donald. The party of those willing to deport 11 million men, women and children. The party of those willing, with caveats, to make punch lines out of women and women’s issues. The party that, through silence, endorses Islamophobia and racism.
You didn’t mistake fanfare for respect, did you?
Sincerely,
The Frustrated Electorate