An open letter to the Trump supporter(s) in your life

Dear friend, neighbor, loved one, relative, colleague, classmate, and/or etc.

On November 5th 2024 America made history by electing its first wannabe dictator as POTUS.  You were among the majority in this country who decided this was their guy.  For the other half of the country this was a dark day.  This letter aims to explain why we are so afraid for the future of our country, our health, our safety, and our livelihoods.  It is also an attempt to open up a dialogue.  I am not trying to change your mind.  I am simply sharing with you facts that scare the living shit out of us and hopefully you will understand our concerns.   

After you have read this letter in full please know that you are welcome to share your thoughts.  If you are open minded enough to read this till the end then I will be willing to hear you.  Let's keep it respectful. 

Here are the facts:

1) Trump (and republicans in general) are worse for the economy.  Since WW2 GDP has averaged 4.33% under democrats compared to republicans 2.54%.  Since 1980 democrats added 50 million jobs while republicans only added 17 million and since WW2 democrats added and average of 2.1 million jobs per year compared to republicans 950,000.  The national unemployment rate generally goes down under democrats.  Republican presidents have presided over more recessions than democrats.  Republicans, with their tax breaks for the wealthy, raise the national deficit.  Small business growth and manufacturing jobs tend to go up under democrats.  Trump alone added 7.8 trillion to the national debt.  While you might claim that inflation was higher under Biden, there is no clear and consistent trend linking the president's party affiliation with the price at the register and the pump.  While some critics claim that economic blame gets shifted due to structural lags in policy.  There is no denying a common trend that the economy does worse under republicans who show slower economic growth and higher recession rates than democrats.  

While democrats focus on the working class by raising wages, supporting unions, and lowering tax liabilities for the common person, republicans advocate for tax breaks for billionaires citing the debunked idea that wealth trickles down from the top. 

To you Trump represents economic opportunity.  To us he represents economic hardship.  

2) Trump is a convicted felon in the state of New York.  He is the only convicted felon in American history to be elected president.  His 34 felony convictions are for falsifying business records in connection to paying a porn star to keep quiet after he had an affair with her while his wife Melania was at home caring for their child.  

While you may have been told by Trump and his surrogates that his case was rigged, evidence of his crimes is substantial.  He was convicted by a unanimous and impartial jury.  While you may find it hard to believe that the jury was impartial because the case occurred in a democratic district, the jury selection process took months and both the prosecutor and defense team was scrupulous in ensuring an impartial jury.  

In addition to his convictions he was previously on trial for stealing confidential documents, included some related to nuclear and military secrets.  When administrations change it is common for some documents to mistakenly be taken.  While Biden complied with the national archive as soon as he was made aware that he had classified documents from his term as VP, Trump was repeatedly ordered by the national archive to return the classified documents he took. After he denied having them, claimed they were his property, attempted to hide them, refused to return them, and claimed he declassified them with his mind, the FBI raided his home and he was charged.  Keep in mind, some of the evidence against him showed he had shared confidential military secrets with people who did not have security clearance.  This case was dismissed by a Aileen Cannon, a federal judge that he appointed, he was not exonerated as he claims.  Judge cannon was repeatedly rebuked by the 11th circuit judges as having made poor judgements in this case.  

He was also facing charges for tampering with the 2020 election in Georgia.  When he saw he was losing Georgia he called their secretary of state and asked him to find the exact number of votes that he needed to win the state.  He also conspired with others to appoint fake electors who would certify him as the victor despite the fact that he lost.  It is likely that due to his victory in the election these cases will go away.  Thus ensuring a total lack of accountability for his traitorous sedition. 

He denied the outcome of that election for four years and even brought his case claiming election fraud to the courts in each of the swing states (at times in front of judges he appointed) but was unable to produce any evidence of outcome determinative fraud. 

Most frighteningly, on January 6th 2021 Trump incited an insurrection at the capitol to prevent the certification of the election results.  He spent months ramping up the rhetoric and encouraging his supporters to show up for this.  When they stormed the capitol building he delayed his response and even expressed apathy when told that they wanted to hang VP Pence.  Capitol police officers died and were seriously injured during this riot.  He called it a peaceful protest and a love fest.  

He has also been found liable for slander and fraud in civil court and is an adjudicated rapist.  

To you he represents family values, law and order, and peace.  To us he represents depreciation of the family, disregard for law and civility, lack of accountability, corruption, and chaos.  

3) Trump has said he will seek revenge on his political opponents, shut down any media that criticizes him, fire anyone on his staff who shows disloyalty and refuses to obey unlawful orders, and imprison anyone who disagrees with him.  He has advocated for the use of the military to suppress peaceful protests and will fire anyone who does not obey his orders to do so.  This is the type of behavior that you see in a dictatorship.  This type of oppression of political opponents is seen in Russia, China, and North Korea.  

To you he represents freedom of speech.  To us he represents silencing, censorship, and state-run propaganda.    

4) Trump, and many other republicans, push for religion to play a stronger role in our government.  What you might be forgetting is that separation of church and state protects people from religion being imposed upon them.  You are free to be religious, you are free not to be.  Trump and other republicans have promised to force Christianity down everyone's throat.  

To you he represents freedom of religion.  To us he represents theocratic autocracy. 

* Item three and four are in direct conflict with the 1st amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

5) Trump is a racist.  He was accused of being a racist well before he ran for president.  In 1973 him and his father were sued by the justice department for refusing to rent to black people.  In 1989 he took out a newspaper ad publicly calling for the execution of five innocent black and Latino teenagers who were alleged to have raped and beaten a white woman.  They were fully exonerated when someone else came forward and confessed to the crime.  There are countless other incidents of him being overtly racist before he ran for president but that will take a lot of time so I will fast forward to his presidential campaigns.  In 2016 he called all immigrants coming over the border from Mexico rapists, criminals, and psychopaths.  Even though there is no evidence that immigrants (legal or otherwise) are more likely to commit crimes.  In fact the legal immigrants are less likely to commit crimes as their visas and green cards are on the line should they break the law while the illegals tend to lay low to avoid being caught in the country illegally.  He encouraged and spouted racist rhetoric against President Barack Obama and VP Kamala Harris.  He called white nationalist groups who murdered people with a car and incited violence in Charlottesville "very fine people".  He has promised to ban Muslims from entering the country in the future and has already done in 2017.  His administration separated children from parents at the border and put them in cages. By putting him in a position of authority you have given him and the white majority license to discriminate. 

To you Trump represents racial and national pride.  To us he represents xenophobia and racism.  

6) Trump and republicans are not pro-life.  Nor are they pro-choice.  Women now have fewer rights than they did 4 years ago because of Trump.  The Dobbs decision (repeal of Roe V. Wade) by Trump's majority led supreme court means that it is now possible for the federal government to ban abortion nation wide.  While you may argue that Trump put the decision into the hands of the states, consider what that means.  Some states have introduced heart beat bills banning abortions before women even know that they are pregnant.  Some states have introduced outright bans on abortion.  Others allow exceptions for rape, incest, and for the health/life of the mother.  While you might think that these exceptions provide loopholes for women to get abortions in these states you are wrong.  The reality is that in states with any type of abortion ban women cannot even get abortions for these reasons and in some they are banned from crossing state lines to do so.  Imagine having to prove to a court that your life was at risk and that is why you had a medical procedure.  Imagine you, your wife, your daughter, your mother, or your sister bleeding out in a hospital parking lot or waiting room because they cannot get the abortion they need to terminate a pregnancy that is killing them.  Unfortunately for some women this already happened.  Consider having to prove in a court of law that you were raped before you were allowed to abort your rapist's spawn.  Consider that court cases take months, by which time the baby is born.  Many rape and incest cases go unreported because of social pressure, trauma, and the fact the the abuser is still present in their victim's lives. This isn't speculative, these things have actually happened and the testimony of the women is publicly available if you are willing to listen to their stories.  

In addition to abortion the repeal of the Roe V. Wade has also brought IVF into question.  Alabama banned IVF treatment because they argued embryos in freezers were equal to living children.  What is stopping that from happening in every state if there is a national abortion ban? Consider as well that some republicans have advocated for an end to birth control (including condoms, the birth control pill, IUDs, and others).  These laws are not based on science.  They are based on religion and therefore have no place in a society where church and state are supposed to be separate. 

What is worse is that republicans are not even technically pro-life when it comes to actual living children either.  Child tax credits, free neonatal care, free childcare and universal pre-K, free or subsidized school lunches, public education, and paid medical leave for parents would all benefit children.  So why don't they do them?  

To you Trump represents pro-life and pro-child.  To us he represents anti-choice and higher childhood poverty, mortality, and misogyny. 

7) Public health is at risk under republicans.  Trump and many other republicans have proposed repealing the affordable care act and replacing it with (in Trump's own words) "concepts of a plan".  The affordable care act prevents health insurance companies from denying coverage to people for pre-existing conditions.  It also lowers the price of life saving prescription drugs which, under Biden, reached all time lows as he capped the price of insulin and other medications and allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices with big pharma.  Republicans support big pharma as they do all corporations.  

Trump wants to deny federal funding to schools that require vaccines.  While not everyone knows how vaccines work, and falsely believe that they are more dangerous than the diseases they prevent, the fact is that they work and are much safer than the alternative.  Smallpox was eradicated because of vaccines.  More than 30 deadly and dangerous diseases are preventable with vaccines.  

Trump's department of health pick, RFK Jr., wants to end water fluoridation.  This will negatively impact dental health, and by extension overall health will decline.  There is no research backed correlation or causative link between water fluoridation and negative health outcomes or changing someone's sexual orientation.  On the contrary the prevailing research between fluoridation and dental health shows a 25% reduction in tooth decay in children and adults with no negative effects. Dental health is connected to the whole body.  Bad teeth and gums can lead to increased risk of heart attack, deep vein thrombosis, stroke, septicemia, malnutrition, and other serious medical conditions.  

Trump was in charge during the covid pandemic which he woefully mishandled.  He played down the severity of the virus which killed 1,219,487 people nationwide.  He contradicted public health officials on how to prevent the spread and politicized the crisis.  With a 1% mortality rate and many people suffering long term complications from covid there is no denying it was severe.  He suggested people inject bleach among other dubious medical claims.  

To you Trump represents a choice in how you take care of yourselves.  To us he represents choosing between paying for medication or food, expensive hospital bills, and a decline in public health.  

8) Trump and republicans want to cut entitlements like social security and Medicare.  They want to cut the social safety nets like welfare and food stamps.  They have talked about it many times.  There is public record of it going back as far as Reagan.  The only thing that prevented this was the checks and balances in place with democrats holding the house or senate.  In some cases there were republicans with enough common sense to vote against their party.  With full control of the house, senate, and judiciary there is no check on them anymore.  

To you Trump represents cutting wasteful spending.  To us he represents devesting in safety nets for the American people and denying us the entitlements we have paid in to for our entire lives. 

9) Our environment is at a tipping point.  Climate change is real and humans are accelerating it beyond what nature would normally do.  We are the cause of a mass extinction event.  Our dependence on fossil fuels is doing terrible damage to the environment and by extension it has impacts on public health.  Trump wants to deregulate industry and disband the EPA.  This means corporations have carte blanche to pollute as much as they want.  Even if you don't believe scientists about climate change surely you can understand that we need clean air, water, soil, and food in order to survive.  If you enjoy spending time outside this impacts you.  Hurricanes keep getting worse, sea levels keep rising, this impacts you and your children whether you admit the reality of the situation or not.  Record high heat wave after record high heatwave keeps hurting urban populations.  While individual actions play a small part in reducing our impact the big results come from policy changes that prevent corporations from rampantly destroying the planet for profit. 

To you Trump represents fossil fuel industry jobs.  To us he represents no breathable air, no drinkable water, and contaminated soil and food. 

10) Lastly, Republicans advocate for deregulation of industry.  I already mentioned how this would have environmental impacts.  But what about the overall impact?  Deregulation means that there are no rules for corporations.  They are free to form monopolies and price gouge resulting in higher prices at the gas pump and at the check-out lane. They are free to self monitor for health and safety standards resulting in higher rates of contaminated food and medicines. They are free to crush labor unions meaning lower wages, reduced job security, and fewer rights for workers.  They are free to lie in their marketing and lower the quality of the goods and services that they sell while jacking up the prices.  They are free to layoff their workers while getting bailouts which go into their executives' pockets. 

To you Trump means free industry.  To us he represents corporate oligarchy.  

This is a relatively short list.  I could go on for days. I could explain that the murder rate is 40% higher in states that supported Trump in the 2020 election.  I could point to the fact that mass shootings and incidence of gun violence are higher in states that adopt the loose gun laws of the republican party. I could go in depth on his foreign policies, obsession with dictators, and his association with Putin.  I could talk about his admission that he would be a dictator.  I could talk about his declining mental and physical health and advanced age and the fact that he is the only president in history that hasn't made his health record public. I could talk about how economists look at his fiscal policy with great concern, how mental health professionals recognize signs of malignant narcissism and dementia, and how many members of his former staff did not endorse him.  I left out mention of his anti LGBTQ+ sentiments.  I did not bring up how he will reshape the military to be led by only sycophantic generals who are like the ones Hitler had (his words). But as I said, that could take days.  

So, Trump supporter in my life, consider that many people around the US are afraid for the future.  Many of us have grown tired of you and your political decisions. Which is why you might notice us ignoring you, defriending you, refusing to invite you or visit you during the holidays, and cutting you out of our lives.  I honestly do not see that as productive.  While your ideology might be toxic and your political views abhorrent there will be no unity unless we can talk to each other.  However, you should not be surprised that we consider you racist, sexist, homophobic, and hypocritical because to us it looks like you voted for a racist, sexist, homophobic, liar who is going to make things harder for everyone...including you. 

I will conclude with a question to keep the conversation going.  If four years from now the economy is in the shitter, violent crime is at all time highs, and maybe we are in the midst of another national and/or global crisis exacerbated by his mismanagement then who will you blame?

Good luck and well wishes,

Your friend, neighbor, loved one, relative, colleague, classmate, and/or etc.