An Open Letter to Trump Voters

Look I don’t care if you voted for him once or twice. I don’t care if you are upset that he lost, he did lose fair and square. I know why you did. I know that you were scared. I know that you were manipulated, and you are probably way too proud to ever admit it. That’s fine. You don’t have to admit it.

I will never understand what you saw in him. You will never understand why I hated him so much. I barely understand it myself. I know you don’t understand the overwhelming joy that the majority of the country feels today. I know it’s not going to be okay with you for a little while, maybe not ever. But my deepest and sincerest hope is that you will see.

I hope you will see how we struggled, and may it never happen again. Those of us who were not just scared, but damn near terrified to walk out our front door. You may laugh this off saying that we were scared of nothing. But on the daily people like me, Hispanic citizens of this country, being carried off by ICE often without explanation. How those, like my own father, latinx people looking for a better life away from a home that wouldn’t give that to them being separated from their children. How those children are still without their parents are being lost and adopted out to people who have no clue where these kids came from or that their parents still are out there trying to find them. People like those I love, Black citizens of this country, facing a new rash of police brutality and state condoned white supremacists crimes against humanity.

I hope you will see how we lost all sense of good coming from that man. When he mocked a disabled reporter, when he called us murders and rapists, when he called other countries ‘shitholes’, when he mocked a 16 year old girl, when he couldn’t denounce the white supremacists who backed him, when he still hasn’t lifted a finger to help those families we discussed earlier, when he lied about all of it, when he watched your neighbors friends and family get sick and die from COVID-19, when he sold our soldiers, when he mocked our veterans, when he admitted he only cared for himself.

Again, this is just a hope that you will see these things. I’m not expecting it. I’m not even counting that it would ever come to pass. I just hope that you will. I hope that you see your fears about President Biden and Vice President Harris are completely unfounded. I hope that you will just be grumpy because your guy lost. Really, I hope you have success in the coming years and that the only bad thing is that the reality that you were forced into is proven false. I honestly think that we can move forward together. Because otherwise we are just going to be dragging your ass forward and that’s no fun for anyone.

People will not be returning to your churches. We saw the truth of them during the past 4 years, they didn’t worship an almighty god. They worship the almighty dollar and power over people. If there is a god, those who prayed to him over the past 4 years certainly didn’t reflect him. It’s okay. It doesn’t mean that the country has lost its morals. It means that it had morals all along and chose love over hate. They knew that if there was a god, what the church stood for during these years wasn’t of him. Maybe it’s for the best.

One thing I can guarantee over the next 4 years is that it’s going to be a lot of hard work. It won’t be easy to start doing the right thing. But the right thing rarely is easy to do. We can use your skills in that work we have to do, and pouting isn’t going to help. You can help, or you can get out of the way and allow the work to be done. We aren’t going to shun you because of what you believed, what you voted, the color of your skin, the person you love, the past you had, the gender identity you are, or any of that defining stuff. That’s not our job, that was the other guys job. I promise you, we’ll fight to make sure your rights are upheld as well.

Time to put this behind us. It’s time to learn from the past 4 years, and say never again. It’s time to work together. It’s time to move forward.

Signed,

A Citizen of the United States of America