Dear Dolores

Dear Dolores,

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. Just because I haven’t written doesn’t mean that I haven’t thought about you, because I often do. I just get caught up in the day-to-day stuff and it’s hard to find a time to sit down and try to compose a letter with so much going on these days. I imagine it is very much the same for you.

Where to begin? Your letters always raise such important questions, and I know we don’t agree on a lot of things. Let’s not let our differences of opinion get in the way of our friendship. We don’t have to agree on every single thing!

But—and you knew there would be a but (or a butt!) coming from me—I won’t beat about the bush. I have to talk about the gorilla in the room. You admit that you have “mixed feelings” when it comes to the former president. I will at least concede that he was in fact, strange though it seems to me, the president for a while.

It’s just that I really cannot understand you when you say you are not sure that he lost in 2020. He and his pals have said over and over and over again that the only way he lost was if there was massive fraud in the election process. Only they haven’t got the receipts. They haven’t shown any evidence that the election was “stolen.”

Personally, I think that the states have done a good job of running elections, and the former guy and his buds should just butt out. I think election workers down at the precinct level take their jobs seriously. I think they run a fair and honest process holding elections and counting ballots. They know how to do this. They got it right. All the audits and recounts proved them right.

But, okay, you are still not sure. I mean, given all my hot air about how the election workers did their job and about how there is no real evidence of fraud, if you are not sure, I can just accept that.

I’m glad to hear that you feel “disturbed” about the riot on January 6, 2021, and the storming of the Capitol by a crazy mob. I mean, I am not glad that you were disturbed. I’m glad that you seem to agree with me, at least, that there was no justification for that riot, even if you aren’t sure he lost. And you also, I think, agree with me that there are a lot of very dangerous people out there—people who participated or people who didn’t come to Washington but who thought the riot was somehow okay.

I mean, you really have to wonder about people who say it didn’t happen, or say that it was some kind of “peaceful protest,” or say that it wasn’t “his people” who rioted but instead it was the FBI or Antifa. Good God, Dolores, people died. And for what? All to get the vice-president to violate his oath of office? Did they really want to hang him? And then what?

You say you are sure that your guy never meant for anyone to die, that he never told anybody to hang the vice-president. Personally, I think he liked seeing the violence. You know, he also never said “don’t hang the vice-president.” And I don’t think he could have stopped it, even if he wanted to. What did he do? He just sat watching the horror unfold on his big screen, probably eating cheeseburgers and throwing ketchup.

I know you voted for him, but I pray you won’t vote for him again. You say the indictments are “bogus” and unfair. I don’t see it that way, of course. Do you still think he was a “great” president? You say you admire him because you liked his “policies.” But what policies would those be, exactly? I don’t know of any policies he had, aside from beating up on immigrants, which, by the way makes exactly no sense given the necessity of bringing in new workers to the country. But we can talk about that another time.

The election is more than a year away, so I imagine we will exchange a few letters before then. Seems to me that the Republican nomination is decided. I really don’t get it. Their party is in ruins. I mean, really? Can’t they find some better candidates?

I will always respect your right to vote, and I don’t assume I know who you will vote for next year. But just think about it carefully and honestly. And if you decide to go with him, ask yourself whether you are voting more for him or more against the Democrat. I think it makes a difference.

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Some other stuff for later,