In the final years of her life, my mother
would receive a blood transfusion once a month or so to counter the effects of
a pronounced loss of iron which doctors couldn't explain. A petite and energetic woman all her life,
the blood transfusions treated the symptoms of her illness, and made her feel
strong again, it made her feel...alive.
However, as the effects of this energy boost would wear off, and they
always did, it was a constant reminder of just how weak she had become.
I suspect that historians will look back at
the Presidency of Donald J. Trump and call it out as a turning point for
America. At this point, it's too early
to know how the story ends, but our wonderful country is at a critical
crossroad in its very young history, and we must ask the driver of the bus to
choose our path forward with care and foresight.
To Trump supporters everywhere, I must
disclose that I did not vote for your candidate. While a few of his positions
held some appeal for me, the majority of them did not, but more importantly, I
simply believed he was horrible person, and I thought he would be a terrible
president. I won't recount all the
reasons why, I shouldn't have to. You
are aware of all of them yourselves, but you have chosen to ignore them or to
rationalize that they are simply not important to you, because unlike other
politicians before him, Mr. Trump has given you a voice. Never before in recent
American politics has one person looked inside you and shouted out to the rest
of the country that you have been wronged.
Never before has any one candidate understood how angry you are, for
being ignored for so many years.
I can't feel your pain. I can't walk in your
shoes, no matter how hard I might try.
If I had been working all my life, but felt that no matter how hard I
had pushed, or how fast I had run, that
I was just standing still, going nowhere, and if I believed the system
and my country had let me down, I would feel the same.
And whatever challenges or difficulties I have
faced in my lifetime, I am sure that they pale in comparison to yours. So who am I to tell you how you should feel,
or how you should think. I have no right
to do so.
So I won't.
But I will tell you, something you may not have previously considered.
it's your turn to to lead.
Donald Trump helped you discover for
yourselves, that you had a voice, and it had been so long, you had just about
forgotten. He gave you that blood transfusion that you so badly needed to feel
good again. He was just what the doctor
ordered, at least for a moment, an oh so brief moment.
And for those reasons, you may feel that you
owe him a debt of gratitude. You might
believe you owe him your loyalty and your ongoing support.
Please my friends, you must understand this is
not true. You do not owe him a thing, for has been courting you, using you,
cosying up to you, playing to your emotions solely for his own selfish reasons,
solely for the benefit of his own oversized ego, solely for his own political
gain. But because of your upbringing,
because of your sense of fairness, you believe that you owe him a debt, just
for helping you feel better, for giving you hope.
Unfortunately Mr. Trump has only been
parroting back your symptoms to you in order to gain your loyalty, and he has
done nothing to cure the illness that may consume us all. He promised he would Make America Great
Again, he would Drain the Swamp, he would Repeal And Replace, it would
easy. He would build a wall, it would
solve all of our problems, and it would be beautiful. All of this would come to be, so much so
that you would get tired of winning.
So he said, but he never actually told us how
he would do this, and now, almost a year into his administration, all we see is
disruption. There are no new ideas, no
clear vision, no meaningful path forward and no true leadership. There is just
chaos. Chaos everywhere we look.
And in the process, in the blink of eye, we
have risked losing the very soul of our nation which was born into the world by
some of the greatest men in history and then nurtured and fed by other talented
leaders for close to two and half centuries.
We want to believe that life is simple. We go to school, we grow up, we get married,
we all look for our place in society and get jobs. Some of us are lucky enough
to turn those jobs into careers. We do
our best to raise our kids, we try to be good examples and teach them how they
should live their lives. We do our best
to plan for retirement, and we all work hard.
Multiply these routine life challenges by 300+ million individuals or
so, add in other macro concerns such as taking care of the most vulnerable
among us, maintaining a complex infrastructure, defending individual rights,
fighting terrorism, engaging in multiple wars, and sometimes, sometimes, when
we stop to think about world we are leaving for our children, our grandchildren
and all the generations to come, sometimes we work to mitigate the impact of
climate change.
Layer in the inherent responsibility that
comes from being the strongest country on the planet, economically and
militarily, and that, historically speaking anyway, we have held the role of
moral authority for the free world, and well, the simple fact is, life is just
not that simple.
Of course everything I have said is as plain
as day, so what's the point?
The point is, my friends, we must acknowledge
the difficulties and challenges of real leadership. The world is complex and there are no easy
answers. We need leaders with intelligence and skills and experience and real
ideas. We need the best and the brightest
of our people. We need leaders with the right character, temperament, fitness,
and moral authority, leaders who can teach and guide, inspire and motivate,
leaders who can show us, there is a better way.
And, in our imperfect democracy, we need leaders who can reach
intelligent consensus with others who have different opinions and beliefs.
But most of all, most of all, we need leaders
who understand in every fiber of their being, that it's not about them. It's about everyone else. And that the honor and privilege of
successfully serving others is the ultimate reward.
So my friends I say to you that your candidate
is not the medicine you need to cure your ills.
He is not the candidate to cure any of our ills. He never was. Deep down, you know this. No one has to tell
you. Still, you just can't find a way to
let go. But let go, you must.
None of us know what will follow in the years
after Trump. No one can guarantee you that these years will be better for you
and your lives will immediately improve, but you must know by now, that Donald
Trump is not the answer for you, or for anyone else, and he is certainly not
the answer for the country
Your time has arrived, and you must not let it
slip by. You must speak out now and tell
your candidate that while you voted for him in early November of last year, you
can no longer provide him support. You
will no longer provide him with the life sustaining blood transfusions he so
desperately needs to keep lurching forward, in desperate search of any “win” in
any undefined arena. You must put an end
to his ponzi scheme of hate and vitriol, pointing to all sorts of individuals
and groups as the enemy, all to conceal the fact that this emperor is wearing
no clothes.
And as you end the blood transfusions to his
ongoing campaign, he will get weaker, and you will grow stronger. And you will
find your own voice
Yes, my friends, you are driving the bus. You
have been doing so all along. You just
never realized it.
I understand what I ask is not easy, It will
seem unnatural, and you will have to dig deep to resurface your own strength, but please, understand that there is no loss of honor here. Fresh
air will fill your lungs and you will feel good again, for you will gradually
recall, that honesty with oneself only leads to a higher dignity. Sadly, so very sadly, our president does not
understand this fundamental principle of humanity, but it is my fervid belief,
that you do.
This is why you are not like him. This is why
you are so much better than him. This is why, it's your turn to lead.
This is your time. The country is waiting
friends, and the whole world is watching.
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