brushfire"This, yes, this, it was always like this." -Stanley Koehler
REFLECTIONS OF AN EMPTY NESTER
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Dear Trump Supporter,
Please understand, when I express my anger and grief and confusion and fear about the election results, I'm not directing this at you. You had your reasons to vote for Donald Trump just as I had my reasons to vote for Hillary Clinton. We each voted for with our conscience. We each want what's best for America. I understand that. Also, when I question your choice of a candidate, I'm not calling you a bigot or a racist or a misogynist or a homophobe or a xenophobe or any other “ism” or “phobe.” My beef is with Trump's views, expressed very clearly throughout his campaign, not yours. So stop with the memes and the outrage and the need to define the word “bigot” for me. I know what a bigot is. And stop calling me a poor loser. That hurts my feelings. Yes, I wish my candidate had won, but my feelings have less to do with losing and more to do with what lies ahead. I have so many questions for you, but let me begin with this. What kind of country do you want to see in four years when Trump's first term is over? Obviously you want jobs for all and economic prosperity and peace on earth; we all do. But what other promises did Trump make you hope he follows through on? What campaign promises do you hope he breaks? If you hope he has appointed a Supreme Court justice or two to overturn Roe v. Wade so that abortions are "sent to the ash heap of history," as Mike Pence said, I get that. But what other rights are you willing to see rolled back to get to this point? Where do you stand on the Marriage Equality Act? Would you like to see that reversed? Or LGBTQ rights in general? In other words, what other proverbial bathwater are you willing to throw out along with the baby? (Excuse the inappropriate idiom here.) According to the ACLU, if Trump follows through on his plans to amass a deportation force to remove 11 million undocumented immigrants, ban entry of Muslims into the country and aggressively surveil them, punish women for accessing abortion, authorize water boarding and other forms of torture and change our nation's libel laws to restrict freedom of speech, he violates the First, Fourth, Fifth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. Which of these are you OK with? Because I understand a lot of Trump supporters voted on him as the candidate most likely to protect our Constitution. And one last question: If your answer is none of them, why in God's name did you vote for him? Sincerely, A Hillary Supporter
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Mary Anne BrushJournalist, fiction writer, wife and mother |