Dear Donald – a campaign 2016 letter to Donald Trump

Image via Flikr and is owned by Gage Skidmore

Donald, I wish I could look beyond your loose mouth, your impulsiveness, and your short fuse, but I can’t. They were fun, attractive, exciting and very different from what I had come to expect from politicians. Your latest comments went too far, however, old friend.  You have shown a crass inability to know that, as in business, there is an art to being a Commander-In-chief. The two arts are very, very different, though.

This is a campaign to decide who will be my next President, it is not a reality show and it is not your next ‘Deal’. Do you understand the difference?

I had such high hopes, but you let me down…again.

I could have accepted that unlike other GOP candidates you are pro-abortion, pro-socialized medicine, support amnesty for illegal immigrants and support government intervention in the free markets, especially politicians handing out perks to their favorite cronies in business. You yourself have, after all, benefited directly from subsidies & privileges you got from your friends in Congress and in Albany.

At the least you supported these things not long ago. If you no longer do, I wonder what has changed? Congratulations for aligning yourself more closely to Republican Party principles.

As I said, I had high hopes. You had changed, it seemed. You had begun to believe many of the things my friends, family and I do. But now you are not The Donald, but a caricature of him. It is not pretty.

Perhaps the stress of the campaign has affected your judgement.

Perhaps the constant media attention has been too much, though you are quite used to cameras and tabloid excess, having made them key elements for your success.

Or have you have decided that because you have more money to spend than any other person in the race you have nothing to lose from saying any damn thing that comes to your mind, however offensive, belittling, untrue, dangerous or unbelievable those things may be?

Unlike they – who must raise campaign funds from supporters and are thus are accountable for the things they do and say – you yourself know that you can spend your own money as you wish and thus are not beholden to decorum, leadership, common sense, fairness or honesty.

It was fun to know that your money exempted you from the rules applied to every other candidate for President, but you are no longer fun. What was once your most attractive feature – your brashness and your ego – has become your excuse to do what no President ought do.

When criticized or questioned,  rather than respond as a President would – perhaps with humor or sarcasm but always thoughtfully and ALWAYS maturely –  you seem to think you can and should instead insult people at will. Perhaps you assume that your place in the current polls and your seemingly unlimited supply of personal money exempts you from the rules that the rest of us must live by. Rules like intellectual honesty, civility and fairness.

When criticized – even when or ESPECIALLY when said criticism is fair – your fall back position is to call smart, courageous, and accomplished people who happen to disagree with you on any particular issue (even those in your own party) ‘idiots’, ‘morons’, ‘dummies’, and the like, as if this was a schoolyard or a smoky back room and not what it is – a race to decide the  successor to folks like Reagan, Eisenhower, Lincoln, Jefferson and Washington.

I find it hard to picture Ronald Reagan demeaning both himself and his office by calling an opponent ‘dummy’, but perhaps he was not as I remember. I cannot imagine Eisenhower saying that a POW was not a hero precisely BECAUSE he had been captured, as you did with Senator McCain.

Perhaps Ike was not even half the President you could be. Maybe you and your Mouth are the Real Deal.

I am uninterested in finding out.

Your campaign sounds more like a comment thread on YouTube than a run for the Presidency. It is disturbing.

I respect – and indeed often enjoy – the randomness and the unfiltered honesty of an online chat, but this is not a chat room, Donald, this is a Presidential campaign. When choosing a President I’m not looking for a buddy or a frenemy, I want a leader. I want someone to look UP to, not someone to cheer along as they insult or smear like a twelve year old.

If I want to hear someone called a ‘moron’, I’ll go to the bar. If I want to hear someone unfairly attack war heroes FOR the fact that that they were captured, I’ll go to Facebook.

In my President I want someone very unlike me, my friends, my coworkers, my teachers, or the people I meet at the bus stop.

I want a leader.

More than that, I hope for someone who will bring back what has been sorely lacking in the political world – a sense of honor.

America is in desperate need of a hero, Donald, someone She can look with pride at and say “THAT is my President”. America needs a hero to guide Her honorably and honestly, assuring Her that She is once again Secure, Noble and Free. I thought it might be you, but you are not a hero, Donald, you are a slap in the face of those who are.

That’s why I will not wait till I am forced to say “You’re Fired” when, as President, you say or do something so careless and thoughtless it puts the Republic – or our security – in jeopardy.

I cannot fathom the repercussions if, when across the table during a high stakes diplomatic discussion,  you call Vladimir Putin or Kin Jung Un or some other slightly disturbed world leader a ‘moron’. Unhinged people with high end weapons are not folks to throw schoolyard insults at when they say something you do not like. You will do this if I and other voters elect you.

You won’t be able to help yourself, it will happen. You are, after all, The Donald.

I can no longer look beyond that fact.

The Donald is not a man to trust with world affairs, as those affairs require that a President deal with folks with strength, which you clearly have, but also with delicacy and an understanding of the right things to say during the right circumstance. THAT, Donald, is unfortunately a skill you do not have.

The Donald is not a man to trust with domestic affairs. Am I to believe that you will not suddenly change your mind on some key tax, regulatory, social or policy issue as the expediency of the moment fancies you, as you seem to have done on key issues already?

Donald, I’m sorry I must ditch you. I must move on to the adults in the room. I tried so hard to believe in you, but your mouth and my concern for my country got in the way.

Don’t take it so hard that I’m leaving, though I doubt you need me to tell you that. It will not mater if I leave you, after all  I must be like all the other morons –  you know, all those folks – any folks – who disagree with you.

I do remember you saying of any who disagree with you

Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest—and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure. It’s not your fault

Maybe I’m just too stupid to see how Presidential you are.