A Letter to Trump Supporters

Dear Trump supporter,

Let's make a deal.  I will not accuse you of being evil or dumb as mud if you show you are capable of learning from the experience of the past four years.  President-elect Biden is going out of his way to unconditionally embrace you.  I am not feeling so generous.   Here's what I'm willing to do:

1. You cannot support white supremacists.  You cannot support a person who says white supremacists are "very fine people." You must change.  I will not meet you halfway (as in we can be friends on the weekdays and you can spew hate against Blacks and Jews on the weekends).  No-- you can't do that.  There is no halfway. If you can pull yourself away from people who express hate against non-white people, I am willing to have an intelligent, respectful discussion about what immigration policies are in the best interest of the country and our families.

2. You cannot support people who objectify or molest women (or worse).  You cannot have an attitude that it is OK for anybody to grab a woman by the pussy without invitation.  You must change.  I will not meet you halfway by saying that it is OK to molest women only on Fridays and Saturday nights.  It is not OK.  You must change.  If you can find your way to condemn the abuse of women, then we can have an intelligent discussion about whatever underlying concerns might have led you to think molesting women is a good idea.

3. You cannot support people who own an arsenal of military-grade weapons and insist on unnecessarily displaying them.  You cannot own street sweeper guns in the belief that they will protect you from a hostile government.  Our Armed Services protect us from hostile foreign governments.  If you don't like the U.S. government, then you can vote them out.  I cannot meet you halfway by agreeing that is OK to carry assault rifles or long guns to the grocery store or civil protests where your life is not in danger.  If you can find a way to put down your weapons, we can have a discussion about gun policies that allow hunters and sport shooters to pursue their hobbies and reasonably defend your family without scaring the hell out of others or raising the risk of unnecessary violence.

4  You cannot support people who oppose science.  You cannot say that you don't "believe" in climate change.  You cannot claim that the coronavirus is a hoax or that  preventative measures like stay at home orders or face masks are "fake news."  I cannot meet you halfway on any issue of science  Science is built on proven methodology of hypotheses and proofs.  You are welcome to offer fact-based challenges to the proposals of others-- but you are not welcome to simply deny widely-accepted facts and impugn the motives and character of others who have followed the scientific method.  I cannot meet you halfway on this.  You must change.  If you can find your way to accept the scientific method, then we can have reasonable discussions about the certainty of scientific consensus and (more importantly) what policies make the most sense to deal with these problems.

I cannot meet you halfway if you insist on a position of ignorance or intolerance.  If that's the only way you can live, then we are going to have hard times ahead.   I sincerely hope you can learn something by what has transpired over the last four years and find a way to make basic changes in the way you approach life.  You must change-- and I hope you do.   I welcome you, in the full understanding that probably won't agree on everything.  But nothing can happen until you commit to moving from intractable positions that you have locked yourself into.  You must do that.  I cannot do it for you and there is no "halfway" where we can meet.  

Adapted from an anonymous diary entry on DailyKos