Dear Dad, Please Don’t Vote For Donald Trump This Time
I still believe in the values you instilled in me. Do you?
medium.com
Ryan Holiday is author who has become pretty popular in pro sports circles for repacking the ancient philosophy of Stocism. He's a damn good writer as well. As a note, he's more of a moderate and definitely not Bernie/AOC style Democrat. And lives in Austin, Texas
Here, he repeats a letter he sent to his father regarding the Presidential election. The big difference is that Trump now has a record and he uses that as part of his argument.
Hey Dad,
Our relationship is strained.
It feels like it has been for a while. For the last four years, there has been an elephant in the room — I'd joke and call it an orange elephant, but I'm nervous that might end this earnest conversation before it even begins.
Have I changed? I mean, yes, of course I have. I've gotten older. I've had two children. I've tried to read and learn as much as possible, just as you taught me.
In fact, that's sort of the weirdest thing. I don't think I've changed much. I still believe, deep in my bones, all the fundamental things you not only talked to me about, but showed me when I was little.
I believe in character.
I believe in competence.
I believe in treating people decently.
I believe in moderation.
I believe in a better future and I believe in American exceptionalism, the idea that the system we were given by the Founding Fathers, although imperfect, has been an incredible vehicle for progress, moral improvement, and greatness, unlike any other system of government or country yet conceived.
I believe this exceptionalism comes with responsibilities.
Politically, I'm pretty much the same, too. Government is best when limited, but it's nonetheless necessary. Fair but low taxes grow the economy. Rights must be protected, privacy respected. Partisanship stops at the water's edge. No law can make people virtuous — that obligation rests on every individual.
So how is it even possible that we're here? Unable to travel, banned from entry by countless nations. The laughingstock of the developed world for our woeful response to a pandemic. 200,000 dead. It hasn't been safe to see you guys or grandma for months, despite being just a plane ride away. My children — your grandchildren — are deprived of their friends and school.
Meanwhile, the U.S., which was built on immigration — grandma being one who fled the ravages of war in Europe for a better life here — is now a bastion of anti-immigrant hysteria. Our relatives on your side fought for the Union in the Civil War. Great-grandpa fought against the Russians in WWI, and granddad landed at Normandy to stop the rise of fascism. And now people are marching with tiki-torches shouting, "the Jews will not replace us." What is happening?! Black men are shot down in the streets? Foreign nations are offering bounties on American soldiers?
And the President of the United States defends, rationalizes, or does nothing to stop this?
I'd say that's insane, but I'm too heartbroken. Because every step of the way, I've heard you defend, rationalize, or enable him and the politicians around him.
Not since I was a kid have I craved to hear your strong voice more, to hear you say anything reassuring, inspiring, morally cogent. If not for me, then for the world that will be left to your grandchildren. This does not feel like a good road we are going down…
Look, I know you're not to blame for this. You hold no position of power besides the one we all have as voters, but I guess I just always thought you believed in the lessons you taught me, and the things we used to listen to on talk radio on our drives home from the lake. All those conversations about American dignity, the power of private enterprise, the sacredness of the Oval Office, the primacy of the rule of law.
Now Donald Trump gushes over foreign strongmen. He cheats on his wife with porn stars (and bribes them with illegal campaign funds). He attacks whistleblowers (career army officers, that is). He lies blatantly and habitually, about both the smallest and largest of things. He enriches himself, his family members, and his business with expenditures straight from the public treasury. And that's just the stuff we know about. God knows what else has happened these last four years that executive privilege has allowed him to obscure from public view.
For those whose parents are voting opposite you, have you engaged in these types of discussions? Were they fruitful?