Today is Jan. 6, 2021. In the future, there will be a lot of people who won't understand the significance of this day, but to those of us living through it, watching with shock and grief and outrage as our democracy is assaulted both from within and without the Capitol Building, this is a grim day, lightened only somewhat by the results of the runoff election in Georgia.
As I've sat mesmerized and sickened by the events unfolding in Washington, DC, I keep feeling that I have to have to have to do something. So I am sending the following letter to those Republican Senators who for four years have been Trump's most loyal champions and enablers, 35 letters in all. I don't expect to get a response, don't even expect these letters to be read, and I certainly don't hold out hope that they will have any effect. But I can't not speak up right now.
Senator -----
I am writing this letter on January 6 as I watch with horror the ghastly assault on democracy taking place before the eyes of the world. I am not speaking only of the protestors who have stormed the sacred chambers of the Capitol. I am speaking of you and the other Senators who for four years have disgraced your oath to serve the people of the United States by supporting and enabling a President you know to be a narcissist, a bully, a sociopath, ignorant of diplomacy and statesmanship, ignorant of the law.
Did you not foresee how this election and its aftermath were going to unfold? I did. Many of us did. Donald Trump’s temperament, his character, or lack thereof, have been evident since even before he decided to run for office. He is a child with a small, fragile ego who has been given a very large spotlight, a very loud microphone.
However, Trump is not the problem. He cannot be anything other than what he is. But you know better. You have chosen to give him your support and loyalty. You have chosen not to speak out against him or call on him to be a better leader. You have heard him speak and must have recognized his lies, his inaccuracies, his bumbling and ignorance. You must have recognized what he was turning the Republican Party into.
For four years this country has been traumatized by President Trump and the Republican Senate, by the lack of true leadership and partisanship, most particularly during this last year of COVID, when leadership has been even more desperately needed than ever before in my lifetime. What is happening today is the consequence of your actions and inactions. I for one will remember these four years and this awful night with bitterness and great sadness. I hope you do, too, and that you also feel a heavy burden of regret for what you have allowed this country to become.
I urge you – I beg you to work with Joe Biden to heal the Unites States. I beg you not to obstruct but to unite with the Democratic Senators so that together you might find real solutions to our very real problems. We have not yet seen the worst of the economic fallout from this pandemic. This is not a time for agendas and politicking. We need leadership, not agendas; integrity, not cowardice. I am calling on you, Senator ----, to return to your best self.
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