An Open Letter

This is an open letter to House Democrats that I share here, hoping it will be read and shared by anyone who cares about the future of our country.

Dear House Democrats,

I ask that before you vote on impeachment next week that you put on your objective thinking caps.  I realize that this entire impeachment is the culmination of 3+ years of hatred directed at the President, but I ask that you stop and consider what your vote will mean.

I understand that many people find Donald Trump’s style to be abrasive and unconventional as far as the politicians and leaders that we are used to.  They dislike his direct and colorful speaking style, his tweets, his ability to say what he thinks in plain language without the niceties and falsities of typical politi-speak.  This may be enough for some people to hate him.  It is not, however, enough or a justifiable reason to impeach him.

I understand that he embarrasses many Democrats, first because he, an outsider, bested them in the 2016 election.  On top of that he continues as president to do things that they have only perhaps promised or dreamt of:  keep his campaign promises; improve the economy; record low unemployment; improved standing in the world; prison reform; equal and consistent enforcement of laws; standing up to the deep state; refusing to let unelected bureaucrats make policy and other decisions that it is his responsibility as the people’s elected choice to make.  He is doing what the people elected him to do, and his success embarrasses many Democrats. 

I understand that the feeling of embarrassment alerts one to one’s own failures.  It hurts and it can lead to a hatred of the one who has embarrassed you.  It is not, however, enough or a justifiable reason to impeach that person.

I understand that most Democrats do not like many of the President’s policies.  That is not abnormal:  the losing party usually advocates for different policies than the winning party.   That is what elections are all about:  the people side with one set of policies or another and in the instant case the policies of Donald Trump won.   That the people did not side with your policies does not make them stupid as many of your fellow Democrats assert.  The President, elected by the people, has both the power and the duty to enforce his policies; it is not an abuse of power for him to do so.  You may hate those policies and hate him for the way in which he enforces them, but that is not a justifiable reason to impeach him.

I understand that you cannot wait until the day that this President is no longer in office.  The way to accomplish that is to present to the people a reason why they should vote for policies that you are presenting rather than for his.  The office of president should not be based upon some sort of likeability/personality contest.  And dislike of personality is not a valid basis for impeachment.

I understand that the Democrats have seized impeachment as a way to rid themselves of this strong president, but there really is no valid basis to do so; its use here is a violation of every core value upon which this country is based.  

I listened to the hearings (both Intelligence and Judiciary committees) and it struck me that your Democrat colleagues all spoke with passion and emotion along with personal narrative about their distaste of the President and his actions.  But if you listened to the more rational and logical presentations of the minority, you cannot deny that there simply are no facts upon which to base these impeachment charges aside from personal distaste for the President, his personality and style, and his policies.  

The Democrats like to call personal opinion and hearsay “fact” and in a sense it is – there is a fact that person X has an opinion.  But that opinion is not a fact of what happened.  And the actual event facts necessary for impeachment are simply not there.

Indeed, many of the facts on which the Democrats base their more general hatred of the President and his supporters are nothing more than opinions or their interpretations or predictions or speculations of what words meant, not what they actually were.  The hatred stems from negative labeling or interpretation of actions or policies that do not conform with those that your party approves.  

It is this dislike of someone who behaves and believes differently than what is endorsed by Democrats that has led to a 3+ year campaign of daily attacks against the President and his supporters.  And, as Democrats realize that they may lose the 2020 election, they bring their dream of impeachment to the House floor in their desperate attempt to subvert the will of the people, not only in 2016 but in 2020 as well.

As you cast your vote on impeachment next week, you have the opportunity to not only halt the farce that this impeachment has become, you can also show this country that you have an objective and clear mind, that you can think rationally and for yourself, that you can overcome personal emotion and stand for what is not only right, but necessary to preserve the future of our country.

I know that the Democrats love to assert that they are somehow protecting the country and Constitution with this impeachment.  But that is a false and frightening talking point.  The Democrats have already displayed a shameful disregard of the Constitution in the manner in which the impeachment inquiry and committee hearings were held.  Not only has the disregard of Constitutional mandates and protections been rampant along with disregard and disrespect for laws, rules, and procedures, but also underlying the entire impeachment charade is an egregious disregard of the core principle of our democracy that it is the people who choose, via their vote for president, what policies they want pursued. 

A vote for these sham articles of impeachment is a vote to overturn the will of the people and with it our democracy itself, for such a vote will forever destroy the ability of the office of president to truly represent the people who have elected its inhabitant.

So, I urge you to put your personal (or party) hatred of Donald Trump aside, to put aside your dislike of his policies or your belief that you have better ideas and policies.  I urge you to look objectively at the evidence or lack thereof.  I urge you to consider what your Democrat party is doing to the country with this absurd impeachment crusade.   You took an oath not to your Party but to our country and our Constitution.  I believe that if you put emotion aside, clear your head, and use your thoughtful brain that you will understand how misplaced a vote for impeachment would be. 

For the good of the country you simply must vote NO.

Two Worlds

That we in America are co-existing in two different worlds is really no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention at all for the last few years, and certainly since Donald Trump was elected to become President Trump (President for at least one of those worlds; the other refusing to accept him as President).   But, this all really struck me again today as I listened to the House Judiciary Committee’s latest episode of the Impeachment Show.

Today we had staffers – staff counsel – commenting on the hearsay and opinion testimony that had been provided to Adam Schiff’s Star Chamber segment of the Impeachment Show.  It was so clear as I listened to the two different interpretations of the evidence (which we will remember is not first hand accounts of the “offense” under consideration, but accounts of what someone was told by someone else who heard it from someone else who may or may not have first hand evidence).  So, rather than coming closer to the truth we become further and further removed from reality.

But, it is interesting to listen to how both sides hold some of the same buzz words and phrases dear and use them to explain what is wrong with the other side.  For example, each side proclaims how the other does not care about America and is destroying our country by disregarding the Constitution. 

In my opinion, it is ludicrous for the Democrats to proclaim that President Trump does not care about America.  Who in recent memory has done more for our country and its people?  The economy is good, unemployment is low, those disaffected groups whom the Democrats have always pandered to are experiencing far better conditions than under the Democrats who would keep them dependent and depressed. 

There is hope in the country for many who have lost or at least not seen hope for many years.  America is blossoming after having been told for years that we should be ashamed and hopeless.  This is the President’s doing, so it is hard for me to understand how people can say he does not care about America.  But, they live in a different world where they look at life through different glasses.  Glasses that are a complete mystery to me.

The Democrats proclaim that President Trump is all about using his position for self-gain.  Again, I do not see what they see.  The President is trying his hardest to make America great again, for all its people.  He donates his entire salary, making nothing for the hard work he puts in.  His businesses as well as those of his adult children are if anything losing due to being under constant attack by Democrats and the media.  I do not see the self-gain that they see in their world.

As far as disregarding the Constitution, I see the Democrats as the ones who are shredding it daily and since the moment that President Trump was elected.  It is they who refuse to accept the will of the people, who believe that they have a right to overturn the results of an election because the people’s choice is seen by them as not the one that the people should have made.  Indeed, they are disdainful not only of the choice, but of the people themselves.  They have sought since 2016 to overturn the election and remove the President.  Yet, in America, under our Constitution, the losers must accept the will of the people if our democracy is to continue.  At least, that is the reality I know, though apparently not theirs.

Beyond overturning the people’s electoral voice, the Democrats have consistently attacked the President and his supporters and appointees with star chamber like proceedings that deny fairness and due process to those involved whom the Democrats are attacking.  We witnessed this in the Russia probe, in the FISA warrants, and most disgustingly in the Kavanaugh hearing to name just a few.  And, of course, in the current proceedings in which Adam Schiff seems to think he is a king who can do as he pleases, violate House rules, and deny all due process in order to reach a goal that he has already chosen.

Moreover, it is the Democrats who would silence every voice that opposes them.  It is they who are not tolerant and supportive of the diverse views that our democracy demands.  It is they who spew hate at everyone who does not join them in their hatred of the President while at the same time claiming that it is he who is hateful.

Meanwhile, how has the President thwarted the Constitution?  In our system of laws, he has gone to the courts, not made proclamations by fiat in response to seemingly unfair and unjust demands by the likes of Adam Schiff and his gang of Impeachers.  He follows the process.  Perhaps that is why so many of the unelected diplomats who thought they were in charge were so infuriated when the President removed them or at least some of their power.  Apparently, they had forgotten that the people elect the President whose duty it is and who holds the power to make the policy decisions that they thought it was their right to make.  Again, they seem to live in a different reality than do I.

What I see are politicians set in their ways and in love with their power who are angry that President Trump is not willing to support their continued disregard of the country and its people.  They are now dug in and determined to remove him.  Removal is their only goal and they are willing to shred the Constitution and even the country to do so. 

And so, they tell their stories of how the President is destroying America.  How?  Perhaps by not leaving so that they will stop their destruction?  They tell stories of the President’s (and his supporters’) evils – racist, hateful, etc.  How?  The President’s economy is helping minorities, raising them out of the depressed, hopelessness that has been their gift from Democrats.  He enforces laws equally, not based for or against someone on their identity. 

And, returning to the specifics of the current Impeachment Show,  the president has a duty to investigate fraud that may have been perpetrated on this country by another nation or by individuals within this nation who held power and used it for their own personal or family gain.  So, when the President told Ukraine that we (our country) wanted them to investigate both the 2016 election interference and the possibility that the then Vice President’s son had in some way benefited from the Vice President’s power and position, President Trump was doing his job.  That the then Vice President happens to now be a presidential candidate should not preclude an investigation into what might be at best an unethical act during his vice presidency. 

And, here is what I really don’t understand:  it is pretty clear that the then Vice President in some way used his position for his or his family’s personal gain.  There is no evidence that the current President has done so.  Yet the Democrats would have us ignore the facts, ignore possible ethical violations by the Bidens, and instead claim that it is President Trump who is doing so.  It is like the pop psychology assertion that we see others through our own eyes.  That is, the Democrats seem to be projecting their own behavior upon the President.

It is like Truth and Untruth in 1984: “Reality exists in the human mind and nowhere else.”  And, we clearly have two realities coexisting in this country.  I would label them as follows:  The one based on emotion and the belief that if you say and believe it enough, then it will be true.  I assign this to the Trump-haters and the Impeachers.  The other reality based on reason and logic I assign to those who demand real facts and evidence, not innuendo, supposition, and narrative based upon personal feelings.

For some Truth is simply what they want it to be.  They ignore real facts that contradict their fanciful and personal narrative.   This is the approach of The Impeachers.   They, in my opinion, are not rational.  Theirs is not Truth, but UnTruth, an UnTruth designed to suit their own personal ends.   Orwell writes in 1984, “There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”  I hope that there are enough of us willing to cling to the reasonable, rational, and factually supportable Truth so that we can keep the country from not only going mad, but from the destruction that the continuing attacks of the Impeachers will cause.