Dear Esteemed Leaders and Mr. Trump,
As 2016 draws to a close, the rest of the world looks on at our great country with combined feelings of ridicule, fear, and glee, for those who desire our demise and see opportunity in our chaos. Americans have been called the ‘best and the brightest’, and the good news is that we still are. 74 million Americans voted to reject Donald Trump as President. 66 million of these votes were for Secretary Clinton. Yet, it seems our Electoral College system, which Trump himself called a disaster, failed…but, not without help.
The GOP spent years cultivating an anti-intellectual constituency and provided a fertile environment for Trump to play his con game. He preyed on the uneducated and the desperate, appealing to the basic instinct to blame, hate and divide, and found an audience well-primed to believe the lies of a demagogue and to be shaped by the propaganda of an adversarial foreign power. This group, the 63 million who voted for Trump, is a minority. Thankfully, the majority of Americans are a thinking people. The public outcry against Trump’s election-countless protests, petitions, millions of letters to electors-is unprecedented, as are many aspects of this election. Do not fool yourself that this is a partisan response against losing an election. Elections have been lost before, even with the rare discrepancy between popular and EC vote, but this phenomenon is quite different. Operating the government in a manner against the express will of a majority this large is a social experiment that will fail, and likely leave our country seriously damaged. This is what we, the thinking majority, America’s ‘best and brightest’, know to be true.
The GOP’s culpability in this train-wreck cannot and will not be ignored. Like the protagonist of a child’s fable, the Republican Party has allowed every wrong decision to be driven by greed and power. This stain will not fade easily, but the longer you place Party over Country, the more we see and the longer we will remember.
We watched as you allowed an unqualified reality tv celebrity become your standard-bearer. We watched as you waffled back and forth between supporting him, endorsing him and shunning him, only to stand with him in the end, despite unignorable and compelling reasons not to. We watched you compromise morality, ethics, character, common-sense, and the well-being of this country, for the chance to push your own agenda through and secure SCOTUS seats. We watched you engage in witch-hunts aimed at Secretary Clinton, turn a blind-eye to foreign election interference, and ignore FBI Director Comey’s 11th hour electioneering. We watched you take advantage of the loss of the Voting Right’s Act to actively suppress the votes of the poor and people of color and purge millions of votes in cross-check. Now you watch on, as we do, as your President-Elect makes a mockery of our country in his transition process, proving his incompetence every day. I teach my children that it is better to right your wrongs, even if that means admitting fault and taking punishment. Our government leaders still have a window of opportunity to set this right and regain public trust and respect.
Mr. Trump, I imagine you are feeling overwhelmed, as you find yourself in a position for which you are in no way qualified. There is nothing similar between running a business and running a country-especially a superpower. There are literally hundreds of millions of eyes on your every move. Your habitual lying and ineptitude will get caught every time. Perhaps you are not finding the job as satisfying as riling up the adoring rubes at your rallies. You claim you do not need to attend intelligence/security briefings because you’re ‘smart’. Your campaign and transition has told a different story. You exhibit the behavior of a pathaological liar. Your vocabulary and communication skills are like a grade-schooler, you are not well read or educated in pertinent matters, nor do you show a willingness or aptitude toward preparation. Poor communication skills combined with your demonstrated lack of self-control is a dangerous combination for diplomacy and foreign relations.
Your reputation for narcissism is your biggest appeal to those around you, both foreign and domestic, who know they can use you as a puppet to push their own agenda. The help you received in your campaign had purpose. Mercer and Bannon used you to raise the visibility and agenda of the alt-Right. Putin wishes to destabilize NATO and weaken the United States, unltimately to regain status and power. Our chaos is what they want. If it was your goal to put together a Cabinet that would systematically dismantle the progress of all our government divisions, then you succeeded.
Just your Twitter use, alone, demonstrates your incompetence to be POTUS. But, this is the reality. This is a country of real people-with real consequences. While you’re tweet-baiting China, whining about the media, and trying to re-ignite the nuclear arms race with Russia, you may do irrevocable harm to our country, and that’s without making a single grossly uninformed policy decision. The majority of the American people knew this danger before the election, more and more realize it every day.
If you truly want to help this country, you should step-down, acknowledge the illegitimacy of an election corrupted by foreign and domestic electioneering and gerrymandering. Go back to your businesses with the goal of utilizing American materials, manufacturing and operations. Use what you learned on the campaign trail to become a better American-pay your taxes, don’t engage in bribery, pay your subcontractors, try being honest (note: creative hyperbole=lying).
As for the rest of our government leaders, realize that you may very quickly have to figure out how to override this election catastrophe. This is not going to sort itself out. A POTUS put in place against the will of the American people and by the combined actions of a foreign adversary, gerrymandering and electioneering is not something our country can come back from. The dangers posed to us are too great, the implications are devastating. The American majority has spoken-we are educated, organized and motivated. We are the best and brightest. We are #TheResistance.
Note to 115th Congress: Make no mistake, we also see that you attempted to make your first Congressional action the gutting of the Office of Congressional Ethics. Obviously, we did not allow that to happen. We are not going to be complacent and you will not be able to remove yourself from accountability. Judging from Mr. Trump’s tweet regarding the timing of this move, it is reasonable to infer that he has signaled his own message to you. If you investigate him (and you must), some of you are likely going down with him. An independent, bipartisan investigation must take place. You were not elected to represent yourselves, Mr. Trump, oil and gun lobbyists, Russia or the 1%-you serve the American people. Do your job, or step down.
Rachel Murphy Azzara 
Reblogged this on House Cat in Paradise and commented:
Hell yeah. Amazing read. I could not agree more, and this blog moved me. Brava!
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I would point out that over 1000 Democrats are no longer in office as a result of every election since 2010, and doubling down on namecalling and demonizing people who disagree has only accelerated that pace. The fact of the matter is Hillary Clinton SUCKED as a candidate enough that my dirty socks would have trounced her in an election, or a freakin’ game show host. The imbecilic woman actually told coal miners and iron workers she was going to put them out of work. Are Ohioans and Pennsylvanians racist or “deploreable” because they want to keep their jobs in the mills and mines? Trump has simply captured a shit-ton of abandoned blue collar Democrats, as Reagan did in the 1980s. The Democratic Party has jumped the shark. What does a Democrat offer me? Shitty health insurance at twice the cost? Unprecedented domestic surveillance and armed drones? Cops with fucking tanks? Gee thanks, wow.
Your assessment of what just happened in this election is so bat shit goofy you ought not be shocked that America will continue to leave Democrats bewildered.
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Thank you for your comment. Your assessment of HRC’s candidacy illustrates my point of the success of Russian and alt-Right misinformation campaigns. Add to that GOP witch hunts and the misguided insistence of MSM to adhere to a narrative of false-equivalency, and there we have your opinion. In reality, there is no comparison between HRC and DJT. One is qualified, accomplished, thoroughly vetted-one is not. For that matter, one is knowledgeable and coherent on issues foreign and domestic, and one is not. The idea that HRC is a worse candidate than DJT is a false construct. Peel the onion and you have nothing.
I’m also glad you brought up the coal miners. Yes, Trump told them he’d bring their jobs back. Clinton told them they would need to re-tool, re-organize, re-educate and offered support to that end. One told them what they wanted to hear and one offered a solution. Coal is a non-renewable resource that we should have weaned off of a long time ago. Not only will it run out, but we know how dangerous the affects of pollution are to our country and people. A demagogue tells people what they want to hear, without care to reality or follow-through. A real leader offers long-term solutions. And it’s not just coal miners he lied to.
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The reality is the global economy is not going away, neither is technology. Jobs lost to automation are not returning. You can promise to bring jobs lost to foreign markets back to America, but as DJT can tell you, it’s a lot cheaper for companies to use utilize foreign materials, manufacturing and labor. That’s why DJT does it. Even if you incentivize companies to do so, the consumer market has to resist the urge to buy a cheaper product or the businesses will lose revenue. In the end, you are relying on an ethical choice across all levels of the business cycle. This is a tall order, and one DJT has personally shown not to be something he deems as important to his own bottom-line.
GOP has a history of short-term solutions-it’s why GOP administrations elevate the debt and create recessions, then Dem administrations come in to stabilize things. As far as Obamacare, it could have had the kinks twinkled out of it years ago, but the GOP wouldn’t work with it. Partisanship over people. What the Dems bring you are reality oriented, long-term solutions that provide support and safety-nets to the socioeconomic levels that need it most, while supporting the growth and economic health of the middle class.
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To tell the truth, both major candidates SUCKED. But you want partisanship until the wheels come off. Democrats are so smart that calling people uneducated and stupid and racist and big doody-heads every election has resulted in… over a thousand less Democrats in office since 2010. The Republicans are ONE state legislature majority away from creating and passing amendments to the US Constitution at will. Yeah, they’re the stupids lol. Maybe it’s those keen Democrat minds that believe prosperity comes from spending money that we don’t have until we’re $20 Trillion in debt that are behind the novel master plan that progress can be made if less Democrats are in office lol.
So, ballpark figure… how many more people need to be insulted and slandered until Democrats don’t have enough votes to submit color scheme changes to the carpet in Congress?
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You see the anti-Trump movement as extreme partisanship. That is a shame as it is not accurate. You may remember their are many within the Republican Party that were appalled at DJT as the standard-bearer, and are equally appalled at his election. A public outcry of this magnitude has never happened. Any attempt to ‘normalize’ this election cycle does a disservice to an accurate analysis. That said, there are takeaways for Dems-lessons to be learned. https://medium.com/@RachelAzzara/strategic-notes-for-democrats-e67d07c73b0b?source=linkShare-fa9c8484fa13-1483468860
As far as your view on economics, be aware that, overall, Dems have achieved more economic growth than Republicans. Any view on PBO’s economy must take into account the economy that was handed to him and a major lack of support from Congress.
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Dems have taken a shellacking (to quote Obama) since 2010, since before Donald Trump stopped being a liberal Democrat donor and became a liberal Democrat running as a Republican.
Take note that just every Republican governor, Senator, and Congressman elected / re-elected this time around personally received more votes in their states than Donald Trump did. Who rode on who’s coattails? Republicans didn’t, don’t, and haven’t needed Donald Trump to win. That’s just fact.
It also underscores the tone deafness that Democrats have inflicted upon themselves screeching at everyone. Sorry, it isn’t propaganda that raised the cost of health insurance on my family by $5000 a year. No, some pimply-faced meme maker on the Internet didn’t instruct the NSA to dragnet everybody’s phone records and metadata without probable cause or warrant. It wasn’t kooky Klansmen circle-jerking in a trailer park that delivered thousands of weapons to ISIS in Syria. It wasn’t Bible thumping fundamentalists that keep letting serial criminal illegal aliens back into America. Don’t get me started on the crony capitalists at Solyndra.
The Dems need a new horse. This one’s been beaten into paste.
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I’m afraid that you are the one who is drowning in partisanship. Save for Millennials, we have all been through multiple administrations. We accept it, even when we don’t agree with it. This is different. This is not normal.
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While we’re at it? Russian misinformation? No one disputes the veracity and provenance of the emails hacked from the DNC or their contents. For all the Nazis are coming hysteria, we’ve only seen one German put down a Jew, and that’s what Debbie Wasserman-Schultz did to Bernie Sanders.
Come on, be serious.
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There are a few layers to this. 1) The very fact that a foreign actor is working to manipulate public opinion for one nominee over another in our election, thus affecting the outcome is, in fact, propaganda and should not be acceptable. It should not be hard to imagine how the #GOP would react if it had not been in their ‘favor’. 2) The veracity of WikiLeaks content is not something that is a given. There is no reason to believe that parts were not altered intermittently. In fact, oddities in the language make it very plausible. Further, given that WikiLeaks is fruit from the rotten tree, why should anyone accept it as fully authentic. Additionally, the fact remains that a review of any campaign’s private correspondence would reveal similar exchanges. Save for the DNC recognizing that Sanders couldn’t win a GE and, unfairly, throwing their support to HRC, it was all pretty benign. 3) On social media, Russian ‘trolls’ and ‘bots’ quite voraciously spread misinformation. Fake accounts, posts and trends can (and were) tracked by location.
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I liken the DNC hacks to a papparazzi photo catching a celebrity sodomizing a small goat. Yeah, shame on the invasion of privacy, but…. ewww, goat raper.
“BUT THAT PHOTOGRAPHER TAMPERED WITH THE REPUTATION OF…”
“Shut up, goat raper.”
Perhaps Democrats should find a candidate that can’t be destroyed by a game show host.
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Funny…but, over the top and a poor analogy. So, the DNC wasn’t comfortable running a socialist. I can only imagine the contortions that went on behind the scenes with the RNC and NeverTrump Republicans trying to avoid Trump. Nevertheless, I think you need to adjust your frame of reference. The dynamic duo of Russian cyber espionage and WikiLeaks is not the paparazzi. An illegal act that exposes a breach of ethics. You are more concerned with the latter. Most of the country is concerned about the former. Who knew what, when? Who colluded with who? Who turned a blind eye for personal gain? Are the Russians using hacked information to blackmail GOP and RNC? Is Trump being blackmailed? Why did Russia want DJT so bad-to destabilize NATO? Did Comey purposefully electioneer? How far did Russia’s electioneering go? Given Russia’s history with election interference, if we let this stand, how does it affect our global reputation? And this all on top of the fact that Trump is an unqualified imbecile.
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We really need to get to the bottom of how the moon landings were faked with technology exploited from the Roswell UFO crash lol.
Was it so long ago that the Democrat incumbent for President mocked his Republican challenger’s concerns about Russia? “The 80s called and want their foreign policy back.” Now the Democrats want to sound the alarm because Hillary Clinton’s Russian “reset” diplomacy was a success, er wait… Yeah, she’s qualified, honest.
Are you really going with “yes the Democratic National Committee is unethical, but no one was supposed to find out?”
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Look, man, I get you’re anti-Dem, but you are seriously looking at this with tunnel vision. This isn’t ‘conspiracy theory’ type stuff. Manafort stepped down from the campaign because he was getting paid off by Russians. Trump is connected all over the place with Russians, as is most of his new Cabinet. Ivanka is currently on vacay with Putin’s ex-girlfriend. He could set some of the questions at ease by simply showing his Tax Returns, but he won’t. And the point you keep glossing over-Russia intervened in our election to elect Donald Trump. Does it occur to you that it’s Putin that wants the 80’s back? NOT having questions is weird.
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Wow. Putin’s girlfriend? Maybe some of that magical sleep-with-a-national-leader stuff will rub off and she’ll be just as qualified to run Russia as Hillary Clinton.
Aside from the constant chorus of Hillary Clinton being ahead in the polls, what was the biggest fake news thing in 2016?
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Now, you started your comments off by complaining about ‘name calling’, but a statement like that is, in fact, extraordinarily sexist. I’ll assume you’re just doing it for the funnies.
There are a lot of ‘conservative’ sites that push misinformation from sources like Breitbart, InfoWars, DrudgeReport, etc. And the meme sharing was ridiculous. The sad reality is your general run of the mill low-information voter allowed themselves to use memes and FB shares as the truth that shaped their opinion. In this age of social media information sharing, the general population is going to have to ramp up their critical thinking skills and develop a keener ability to validate sources. Off the top of my head, the biggest fake news stories I saw consistently cited were: The Clinton Foundation only gives 10% of it’s money to charity, The whole Killary-Clinton body count nonsense, Hillary’s health, Obama bans the Pledge of Allegiance, Podesta rigging polls, HRC sold weapons to ISIS…
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I wasn’t complaining about the namecalling. Just pointing out that as a tactic – “racist… low-info… uneducated… non-critical thinking… etc.” – it has resulted in over 1000 Democrats losing their seats in all levels of government. It’s probably why Krispy Kreme sells better doughnuts rather than airing a campaign that says “Dunkin’ Donuts eaters are just like Hitler.” Just a hint for, you know, the critical thinkers.
Sexism? How meaningful is that charge in a world where Trump could be the first woman President today if only he, er “she” came out in five minutes from now and announced that s/he is “transgendered.” The left has jacked themselves into a corner trying to be the thought police. Mustn’t offend anyone, except of course those that disagree. The left doesn’t need those votes outside California anyway, right?
Me personally, I’d hate for my side to be out – as you seem to be – blaming an election loss on cartoons, like an unmasked Scooby Doo villain.
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