An Open Letter to Trump Voters

My understanding is that there is a narrative on the right that the American left is dangerous, radical, and unamerican. If I understand correctly, right-wing news organizations such as Fox, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire promote a narrative that Democrats and the American Left plan to move us towards socialism, allow rioters to rule our cities, and teach our children that our country was founded on racism. In this dystopian vision that the left has, laziness is rewarded, business owners are punished, and no one is allowed to express conservative ideas. According to this narrative, Trump may be a bad person, but we have to vote for him to ward off anarchy, collectivism, and economic ruin. His supporters believe that voting for Trump is about more than just passing tax cuts and reducing regulations. President Trump’s supporters believe that he is trying to protect our heritage, our constitution, and our way of life. Is this accurate? Is this a narrative that you believe?

Narratives are the most compelling form of communication that humans have ever developed, but all narratives by their nature need to leave out information. No good story is the truth, whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Reality has a way of being much more complicated than a simple story. I want to offer a different perspective than the one you might hear from your conservative friends, or on Fox News, The Blaze, or The Daily Wire.

America cannot be divided into two simple groups: the political “left” and the political “right” with clear and consistent goals. The United States has a population of over 328 million people. Among those millions are neo-nazis, Stalinists, neoliberals, Reaganites, Bernie bros, Trump fans, centrists, and millions of people who are indifferent. There are citizens of this country who want to turn the USA into a white ethnostate, they would be considered a part of the “right”. There are citizens of this country who want to abolish capitalism, they would be considered part of the political left.

Commentators such as Ben Shapiro seem to argue that the American Left is much more united than it actually is. There are people on the “left” that want to keep the military the same size as it is, or even increase funding, there are also those on the “left” that want to abolish the military, and millions of perspectives in between those two. There are some on the “left” who want to eliminate all police, and there are many more (such as Joe Biden) who want to increase funding to the police. Any issue you can imagine, there is a huge variety of opinions on the “left”. The Democratic party, when compared to political parties around the world is actually a centrist party. Don’t forget that Democratic voters nominated the centrist Biden over Bernie Sanders.

If you want to know what the Democratic party stands for, read their 2020 party platform. There is nothing radical in there. There are no promises to nationalize industries, collectivize agriculture, criminalize dissent, or persecute entrepreneurs. Instead, the Democratic Party platform promises to make health care affordable, provide quality education, and strengthen civil rights.

Do platforms matter, or are Democrats lying about what their priorities are? One political scientist reviewed party platforms and compared them to votes taken in congress. He found that “Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Congress voted in accordance with their platforms 82 percent of the time.” Platforms matter, and in the unlikely event that all of the priorities were implemented in the next four years, we would still have a market economy and a democratic government.

It is true that there are angry young college students who want to tear down all statues of the founding fathers and tear down the economic system that we have, but these views are far outside of the mainstream of the Democratic party. There is civil unrest around the country protesting police violence, but Joe Biden has Spoken strongly against any form of violence. President Trump blames the violence on “Antifa” and Black Lives Matter protesters, but there are credible reports that most of the violence comes from right-wing agitators trying to discredit the movement fighting for racial justice.

Commentators such as Ben Shapiro try to take the most extreme and terrifying positions and behaviors from anyone left of center and claim that the Democratic Party represents those ideas. This is false. Mainstream Democrats have distanced themselves from the “abolish the police” movement, much to the chagrin of leftists. Every leftist I know despises Biden for his centrist, incremental approach. But if we are to judge the Democratic party based on the most extreme members of the left, why not judge the Republican Party based on the most extreme members of the right?

On December 4th, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch walked into a pizza parlor in Washington D.C., and fired several rounds. He was a Trump supporter and believer in the debunked “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that alleged that prominent Democrats were operating a ring of sex slaves in the basement of the pizza parlor. This stems from the antisemitic and pro-Trump conspiracy “QAnon”. Trump himself has said that he appreciates the support of QAnon Supporters.

In 2019, a gunman shot and killed 20 people in a Walmart in El Paso. The gunman was a Trump supporter and published a manifesto online echoing Trump's language attacking immigrants.

Cesar A. Sayoc Jr. Mailed pipe bombs to critics of Trump. He is a fervent supporter of Trump and followed Trump’s hostile language towards the media. In August 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Illinois crossed into Wisconsin with an assault rifle and killed two protesters. Trump has defended the teen. ABC news found 54 incidents of violence and threats of violence inspired by Trump.

If you think that the Democrats should be connected to the most extreme positions and actions from anyone left of center, it follows that the Republicans should be connected to the most extreme positions and actions from anyone on the right. The only difference is that mainstream Democrats have spoken out against extremism, while Trump said “there are good people on both sides” after a white supremacist ran over thirty-four people, killing one at the “unite the right” rally in Charlottesville Virginia.

Many people are planning to vote for Trump and claim that their vote is “not about Trump”. Those people must think that the most dangerous and scary beliefs and actions from anyone on the left are reasons to vote Republican. They are unwilling, however, to take responsibility for the violence and hatred from people on the right.

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Some commentators on the right claim that we need to vote for Republicans to protect the constitution. But what is President Trump’s record on the constitution? Even voters who dislike Trump should look at his record before instinctively voting for him to stop the Democrats.

The Founding Fathers laid out a vision for a government that was accountable to the voters and maintained the separation of powers. They gave powers to each branch of government. Trump has shown that he has little regard for these constitutional limits:

On January 25, 2017, after Congress declined to fund a border wall, Trump issued Executive Order 13767, ignoring the constitution’s clear language that only congress could appropriate money. He took money from the military to build part of a wall. This is in clear violation of the constitutional powers given to congress:

“No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.” — U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 9, clause 7

The first amendment to the constitution gives Americans freedom of speech and guarantees the freedom of the press. It is widely understood that the freedom of the press is essential to a functioning republic. On 17 February 2017 and at least three other occasions Trump has called the press “The enemy of the People”, a phrase that previously was associated with Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. After Trump called the press the enemy of the people, one of his supporters, Jarrod Ramos, walked into the offices of the Capital, a newspaper serving Annapolis, Maryland with a shotgun, and killed five newspaper employees.

In 2018, Trump praised GOP politician, Greg Gianforte for body-slamming a reporter. He said, “Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of guy.”

Trump regularly calls the media that is critical of him “fake news”. Some of his supporters have taken his hostility towards the media even farther such as Cesar Sayoc the Trump supporter mentioned above who sent pipe bombs to journalists and Democratic leaders. Trump’s rhetoric has caused confusion about what is true and what is false, making it harder for voters to hold him accountable for his actions.

In May 2020, Trump’s lawyers claimed that the president has “absolute immunity” from all investigations. His lawyers claim that the president has presidential immunity and executive privilege that protects him from all investigations and oversight. One prominent law professor, Claire Finkelstein, said that “It would literally put the president above the law if the Supreme Court sides with the president’s lawyers in this case”. The courts will decide what happens, but no part of me can imagine the founding fathers saying that the president should be above the law and immune to all oversight and investigation. It does not take much imagination to picture what a future power-hungry president of either party could do if the courts decide that the president is accountable to no one.

President Trump refused in 2016 and again during the 2020 election campaign to say whether he would concede the election if he lost. In the final debate of the 2016 election, when asked whether he would accept the results of the election he said “I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now. I’ll look at it at the time.” In 2020 he said he “Will have to see” about accepting the results of the election. Would a constitution loving patriot talk like this?

On top of these claims, after the 2016 election, he claimed without evidence that millions of illegal Mexican immigrants voted illegally for Clinton. In 2020, he is working hard to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election by claiming that vote-by-mail is riddled with fraud. I live in Utah, where we have been voting by mail without incident for years. Utah consistently votes Republican even with the mail-in voting system. Would a democracy-loving patriot spend years trying to convince people to not trust election results? I don’t think so.

Trump has “joked” on several occasions that he will run for a third or fourth term. He said that since he was impeached, his first term should not count. The constitution’s twelfth amendment forbids a president from being elected president more than twice. Trump has also suggested delaying the election; no part of the constitution gives him the power to do so. Trump has also threatened to adjourn Congress, another power that he has not been given by the constitution. Scholars warn that Trump expresses authoritarian tendencies and our country scores worse on measures of democratic performance under Trump.

Trump claims that he is protecting the constitution, but he does not believe in article one’s clear statement that congress allocates funds. He does not believe in the first amendment’s guarantee on the freedom of the press. His statements do not show respect for the twelfth amendment’s ban on running for a third term. He has spent years casting doubt on the legitimacy of elections. If you think that he is a defender of the constitution, could you please tell me what specific parts of the constitution he believes in and why he does not believe in the whole document?

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The GOP led senate issued a nearly 1,000-page report confirming that the Trump campaign worked with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. The entire U.S. intelligence establishment agreed that there was collusion. Donald Trump Junior replied to a Russian intermediary “If it’s what you say, I love it” when offered information that he thought might be damaging to Hillary Clinton. Would a democracy-loving patriot work closely with a foreign government to win an election?

Trump also reportedly tried to make a deal with China to help his re-election prospects. How is making deals with hostile governments to help with re-election in the interests of the country? Is this not treason?

As long as I can remember, Conservatives have been saying that “character counts” and that leaders who lack character are not worthy to lead. Trump has cheated on all three of his wives. He paid hush money to a porn star. Politifact has fact-checked 848 statements made by Trump. More than 70% of those statements were rated as “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire”. Does honesty not matter for Republicans?

I am going to quote a deplorable thing that Trump has said. If you are uncomfortable reading it, you should not be comfortable voting for Trump. In the Access Hollywood tape, Trump can be heard saying: “I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and f**k her. She was married. And I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, “I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.” I took her out furniture — I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look.”

Later in the interview, Trump says: “I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Trump said that when you are a star, you can get away with sexual assault. He has been credibly accused of sexual assault by over 30 women.

Many Trump voters claim that they do not like Trump. They know he is a bad person, but they are voting for policies, not the person. To me this sounds like wanting to eat cookies, but without the calories, wanting freedom without consequences, or wanting forgiveness without repentance. There is no way to partially vote for Trump. Either you vote for him, all of him, or not. There is no middle ground.

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Conservatives have been claiming for as long as I can remember that the government should not go into debt. Obama was criticized endlessly for deficit spending during the great recession. What is Trump’s record on the deficit? During one year alone, Trump increased the deficit to $22 trillion during a time of economic growth (the growth began under the Obama Administration). Do deficits only matter when Democrats use them?

Republicans also claim to be pro-market, but Trump has pushed for a variety of market-distorting, anti-capitalist policies. He imposed tariffs, a tax on imports, that distort the free market. He then used farm subsidies to further distort the market and try to buy the votes of farmers, after he made it impossible for them to make an honest living selling their products on the international market. Trump has tried to interfere in the free market in other ways supporting failing industries such as coal mining. The center-right think tank the Niskanen Center spoke about the anti-market positions of the modern Republican party, saying:

“The clear upshot of libertarian influence has been to push the conservative and Republican posture toward regulation in a pro-business rather than a pro-market direction. In actual political practice, the usual “free market” position has been to look the other way when regulations artificially inflate businesses’ bottom lines — but to raise the hue and cry when regulations aim to protect persons and property from injury at the hands of business.”

Is intervention in the economy only a problem if Democrats propose it?

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Democrats are not the only ones warning of the dangers that Trump poses to our country. Many Republicans have seen the danger that he poses to our country.

Lifelong conservative and well-respected former presidential candidate Mitt Romney voted to convict Donald Trump of conspiring with Russia to win his first election. He said:

The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival. The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so. The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders. The president’s purpose was personal and political. Accordingly, the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.

Former Arizona Senator and member of the Church of Jesus Chris of Latter-Day Saints Jeff Flake has spoken of his concern that Trump has no regard for the separation of powers, he has no regard for the truth, and is an incredibly divisive individual. Speaking about Trump’s consistent promises to put Hilary Clinton in jail, Flake said:

“Republicans should not be okay with Donald Trump threatening to jail his opponent after the election. That is not who we are.”

Promising to jail political opponents is behavior that is seen by aspiring dictators, not democracy-loving patriots.

Evan McMullin, a former presidential candidate and member of the LDS Church is also concerned about Trump. He talked about how Trump promises to deliver conservative wins but threatens to weaken democratic institutions. He said that conservatives should not trade democracy for conservative policy preferences:

“Each of these trades is designed to give us a policy win we want in exchange for our turning a blind eye to Trump’s amassing of power at the expense of our republic’s essential ideals, norms, and institutions, which are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.”

“Conservatives have loudly warned of their erosion as a matter of highest concern for decades. Will we now trade them away for important, but lesser prizes? If so, was liberty ever our real concern, or was it merely a partisan prop in a political play?”

“We should expect Trump to approach the rest of his presidency in this transactional manner and our nation will be well-served if we demand first his respect for that which ensures our freedom.”

Many former U.S. military leaders have also warned that Trump poses a danger to our country. These are not partisan attempts to discredit a good man, these are substantiated criticisms from across the political spectrum.

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So if Trump is so bad, who is conveying the narrative that Trump will save us? Mostly that narrative comes from unreliable hyperpartisan news outlets. Below is a chart that shows the reliability and political dispositions of news outlets. The Daily Caller, The Blaze, and Breitbart are on the extreme right and contain “inaccurate/fabricated information”. These are the outlets promoting the narrative that the left is dangerous and Trump will save us. If you disagree with the assessment that these news outlets are hyper-partisan and unreliable, please review their methodology and tell me why it is wrong.

Getting news and information from a variety of sources is a great idea, but the variety should not include sources that regularly use inaccurate and fabricated information. That will not help form a well-informed opinion.

James Baldwin wrote, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.” I and many other Democrats agree with this sentiment. We love our country, but we also believe in repentance. We do not believe that our country has repented from slavery, the slaughter of indigenous people, Jim Crow, redlining, and the many other injustices that white people like you and I have not experienced. In case you are unfamiliar, redlining was a racist housing practice that prevented most minorities from gaining access to mortgages. Acknowledging these historical injustices is not an attack on hardworking white people, it is a necessary step to living up to our highest ideals.

I and many other liberals believe that there continues to be discrimination against people of color in our country. We look at the statistics that show minorities struggle more economically and see that as caused by housing discrimination, school funding disparities, and other opportunity gaps. We look at disparities in the criminal justice system, in healthcare and in many other areas of life and we see systemic racism that needs to be addressed.

I believe that if you look at the evidence, Trump is not a conservative, he is not a good leader, and he is not a good person. He has no regard for the constitution or the decency of other human beings.

I know I will not convince you to vote for Biden or embrace progressive policies. I simply want to offer a different perspective. I would like you to consider Trump’s whole record and ask yourself if what you gain by voting for Trump is worth what you lose by voting for Trump. Trump has separated toddlers from their parents. Trump demonizes all media that is critical of him, bullies his opponents, and enriches his family while in the presidency. Do the ends justify the means? What ends do you think Trump will help you achieve?