APPEASING A THUG – The Misplaced Notion of Moral Equivalency In Hyper-partisanship

As mid-term elections loom, many Americans—I think from both sides of the divide—are bemoaning the sorry state of our political and social discourse. I keep hearing the suggestion that any return to civility will require both sides to tone down their rhetoric and try to see each other’s point of view.

Yes, they say, Trump and his neocons bully, degrade and lie…but the “liberal elite” bitches, moans and schemes right back.

This well-intentioned attempt at some kind of balance should concern every American as much as the political and cultural rift itself.

      When someone breaks into your home, starts taking
      your stuff and threatens the future of your children,
      there is no requirement, no expectation, of civility.

There is no moral equivalency in responsibility for the bitter enmity between Trumpublicans’ systematic trashing of cherished, hard-won American values to feather the nests of the rich and powerful, and the Progressives’ impassioned resistance to it. No more than there was in the deadly Charlottesville standoff between white supremacists and decent, mostly peaceful counterprotesters standing up to them—a clash which Trump was quick to blame on “both sides.”

Nope. When someone breaks into your home, starts taking your stuff, perhaps tells you to get out because you’re not like them, and threatens the future of your children, there are not two equally-valid arguments. There is no requirement, no expectation, of civility. You yell; you scream; you strike back the best you can with whatever you’ve got. And you don’t stop until they’re caught and gone.

A SNOWFLAKE’S CHANCE IN HELL – Fear and Loathing In the Trump Era

Listen to this deluge of campaign ads! Notice how much of the republicans’ message is about fear? A couple of spots running here in MN epitomize it: “I would never vote for so-and-so; he won’t protect us;” and “So-and-so will make Minnesota a sanctuary state for criminals.”

Fear is much easier to incite than any positive passion like hope, excitement or love. With fear, all you have to do is dangle it out there and people—mostly folks who are, I suspect, already deeply insecure—will bite.

It reminds me of Stephen King’s approach to engendering fear. He realized he can stir more fear by merely suggesting the presence of some horror than by actually showing it. That’s because we human beings are so good at filling in the gory details in our imaginations.

Of course, it helps to objectify and demonize the thing you want folks to be afraid of: Cujo, Christine, the Mist…immigrants, the media, smart people…

       It’s easier to be against something that someone
       else’s vision and hard work have created than it is
       to do the work of creating something better yourself.

A CONSTRUCTIVE VISION
There’s another spineless premise at work in the republicans’ message. Attacking someone else—someone you portray as The Enemy—requires none of the clarity and courage it takes to say what it is you stand for. Easier, it seems, to be against something that someone else’s vision and hard work have created than it is to do the work of creating something better yourself.

Both these intertwined, negative attitudes—fear and negativism—are not only gutless, they’re lazy and undisciplined. They require no constructive imagination, no work whatsoever. And, worse than the ignorance inherent in them is the fact that the beliefs they rest on involve not defensible truths, but—to use their proponents’ own term—“alternative” facts.

ILLUSTRATION: iStock/dane_mark

The problem we progressives face in coming elections is that we’ve found no one—yet—on the national level to lay out a vision of the kind of peaceful, prosperous future intelligence, creativity, joy and hope can inspire. Unlike fear, positive concepts like this have to be articulated. And they have to convince conservatives that being constructive just might address their complaints as well, or better than, being destructive.

Perhaps the most difficult nut to swallow, for both sides of the divide, is that the new, positive approach must embody a measure of reconciliation.

        Not a person famous for nothing but fame
        itself, but one with deep insight, an expansive
        outlook and real integrity.

WHO WILL TURN THE TIDE?
During the disastrous second term of George W. Bush, the only solution I could imagine was for a charismatic leader to emerge who might articulate hope for a nation still on wobbly knees from 9/11. My prayers were answered.

Sadly, though President Obama embodied nearly everything we needed as a leader, he failed to use his eloquence to full advantage. And, for reasons I’m convinced the neo-cons are too smart to ever say out loud—though Trump is all but doing so for them—he was met with a degree of political rancor and obstruction one would have thought reserved for a true tyrant.

Once again I’m praying for a charismatic leader, one who can make the distinction between beliefs and facts, articulate a view of the future that doesn’t require Americans to talk circles around the values we know undergird this great country. Not a person famous for nothing but fame itself, but one with deep insight, an expansive outlook and real integrity. One with a deep, selfless love for both country and planet.

Tall order, right? I figure it won’t be the first time the loving power I call God has called on us to be his instruments in delivering a miracle. So please, please, even if you feel insignificant, even you’re deeply disillusioned with our political system, don’t give up. Come Tuesday, November 6, get out and VOTE! And while you’re at it, see if you can help a couple of other people who might otherwise not be voting to do so too.

We can do this…we must do this!

STOLEN CONSCIOUSNESS – The Trump Disaster Goes Deep

Intelligent, caring Americans are fighting to save our country from the massive indiscre…oh, hell, let’s call them what they are: crimes of the most incompetent, corrupt, unstable president in its history.

Somehow, while we were shrouded in the fog of our political complacency, this reality show imbecile and his handlers—both here and abroad—have managed, methodically and rather quickly, to take over and hobble our democracy. This has backed the majority of Americans—those of us who reject the junta’s ignorance and fear mongering—into a corner, evoking a massive, national fight-or-flight response.

Flush with adrenaline, we naturally focus on what appears to be the most egregious, in-your-face threat of the day—insults to allies, collusion with enemies, sabotage of democratic institutions, betrayal of environmental responsibility, stifling a free press, condoning of racism…it goes on and on.

But while we’ve been so intent on fighting off the assault on our country’s hard-won freedoms and values, there’s been another, deeper, much less obvious victim of the abuse.

         The worse he proves to be, the better
         they like him...and he feeds on their
         utter lack of self-respect.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT
Like a filthy old HVAC system run amok, Donald Trump has sucked the air out of the room. After a year and a half of gasping for breath in this vacuum, anyone who remembers what truth and decency are is, in a slight twist of the word, losing unconsciousness.

The media—shame on them—have been unable to resist ennobling his every vile or vacuous word. Social media’s gotten so saturated with both his foolishness and legitimate resistance to it, that folks can no longer get a word in edgewise about their kids, pets, travels or personal epiphanies.

Nope, just as this sniveling bully-brat has somehow always managed to do, he’s made it all about him. Apparently, as P.T. Barnum said, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. In fact, for his rabid base, the worse a leader—not to mention human being—he proves to be, the better they like him. And he feeds on their utter lack of self-respect.

The toll this great nation will endure for a generation or more will involve more than our freedom, our respected standing in the world, the livability of the planet or our humanity toward one another. It will—already has—involve the loss of our higher consciousness as a nation, our sense of who we are and of the essential interconnectedness of all Creation.

I dare say, for inciting a degree of polarization and lack of civility unknown in my lifetime, it will also affect the health of the millions of people around the world who feel assaulted, abased by this bully. Ironically, as decent people fight for a sane, healthy future for our offspring, chronic stress shrinks our own life expectancy.

  Truth doesn’t play nice with their fear-mongers.

OBAMA CARED
Say what they will about Barack Obama or his policies as president, he was without doubt a real, thinking, caring human being. An evolved person—curious, aware of both himself and others, able to adapt to changing circumstances, whether they required he be fully present in the moment or articulating a grand vision. 

There used to be many other such evolved and evolving leaders, of both political parties. But Donald Trump and many of his henchmen are sworn enemies of any kind of evolution. In fact, they’re systematically weeding out anyone, at any level of government, who pretends allegiance to demonstrable truth over blind loyalty to their visionless, self-serving doctrine.

Truth doesn’t play nice with their fear-mongers. It makes the fear real...but just for them.

EYE ON THE BALL 
So, one moment I’m thinking the very best thing we could do to resist this unprecedented assault on our personal and national values is to simply out-think, out-create, out-care Trump and those working his strings. To avoid falling for the distraction and continue living, despite the aggression, as evolved and evolving human beings.

The next moment, I’m back in that fight-or-flight response. Who cares if the man who’d replace him is even more frightening than he is. Just get this robber of all that’s honest and decent out of my house.

I’m disappointed in myself for this vacillation. That I ever allow my best  instincts to be sapped by the impulse to defend myself against the violation of my life and that of my country.

So, do you experience this same dilemma? How do you deal with it? Are you any better able than I to keep your eye on the ball and remain true to yourself? If not, how do you cope?

P.S.
Assuming that the wheels of justice turn too slowly to squash this swarm of bugs before this fall’s midterm elections, I’m able to find some hope that decent people who still recognize what it is that has made America great will turn out en masse to vote.

We need political candidates, at every level, who’ll articulate a renewed vision of a world that runs not on people’s basest instincts, not at the whim of a ruthless oligarchy, but once again on hope, mindfulness, love and generosity. One that answers to an authority higher than aberrant interpretations of patriotism and and Christianity, or a sniveling bully and his self-loathing, suicidal following.

So find out who are some of the congressional candidates whose races could go either way. Not just in your own state, though that's a good start. Pick a few from other parts of the country. And pitch in...whatever you can afford. A good place to start is the DCCC. (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee) Locally, you might consider volunteering to knock on doors or make phone calls, which experts keep saying is quite effective.

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES – The True Colors of a President Who Knows Neither

SILVER SPOONS AND RED HANDS
A reality TV star is running this great nation into the ground under the flag of narrow-mindedness. A spoiled-brat bully who grew up with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. A textbook narcissist who's never had to face the consequences of his impulsive, egocentric decisions.

Taught from an early age that decency is a liability. (You don’t have to be nice as long as you win.) Has repeatedly bought, bribed or browbeaten himself out of any culpability—including for sexual assault—or responsibility—including for military service.

  His little tantrums on social media...seem to 
  hold the same perverse appeal to his fans as a 
  ransom note from a psychopathic kidnapper.

This emotional adolescent has always done exactly and only what benefits him and strokes his ego, no matter whom it hurts. Anyone who’s ever tried to hold him accountable for his misdeeds is subject, first, to his little tantrums on social media—which seem to hold the same perverse appeal to his fans as a ransom note from a psychopathic kidnapper.

If that doesn’t get him out the jam, he unleashes his high-powered lawyers on them. His mantra: when people call you out on your illegal, immoral behavior, double down. Crush them. Whatever it takes—lies, threats, countersuits… And in the rare case in which all of this fails, there’s always the big, secret payoff. Bribe them into submission.

      He’s acting out all those insecurities on 
      our country and every single one of its 
      citizens as if to punish us for our ignorance.

FOOLS GOLD AND BROWN NOSES
Compensating for deep-seated insecurities, this small, small man has left a swath of human carnage in his fool’s gold wake - personal relations, business associates, employees, marriage partners…anyone unwilling to enable him and his outsized ambition.

And now, cast in a role he sought only as a prank—and fully expected to dodge—he’s acting out all those insecurities on our country and every single one of its citizens as if to punish us for our ignorance.

As if this scourge weren’t reprehensible enough when he was just a rich, influential businessman and celebrity, he now holds what is arguably the most powerful position in the world. Through his outrageous decisions and behavior as US president, he’s now on track to hurt not just those stupid enough to do business with him, not just those aggrieved and fearful enough to vote for him, but untold millions of innocent people here and around the world—for generations into the future.
 

         It is our only reasonable hope for 
         exterminating this infestation gnawing 
         at the foundations of our decent, daring, 
         democratic nation.

This man and the shameless brown-nosers who do his bidding must be stopped. Fortunately, one institution of this great democracy that still survives, despite this junta’s—and its unlikely, clearly anti-American allies’—best efforts to throttle it, exists for just this purpose: free and fair elections.

SHOW YOUR COLORS
Whatever flaws America’s electoral-college voting system may have, it is, I’m afraid, our only reasonable hope for exterminating this infestation gnawing at the foundations of our decent, daring, democratic nation. Speak up. Get behind candidates—even at the local level—with the decency and courage to stand up to the reckless tyrant in our midst.

Support the Mueller Investigation’s freedom to uncover the facts about Russian assaults on democracy and the crimes committed by Americans involved in the Trump campaign to facilitate foreign influence.

Vote…and see if you can’t help someone who might not otherwise be able to get to the polls do so.

DEAR JOHN – My Rebuttal to an Avid Trump Supporter's Facebook Comment

JOHN'S ORIGINAL COMMENT:

I take umbrage at your referencing our ship of state from what you seem to think is a nautical perspective. Particularly from my point of view as former member of the US Navy in Viet Nam while you were draft dodging your way thru college at the same time I was serving this great nation. Oh by the way while putting my ass on the line everyday never once did I complain that I was in combat on behalf of Kennedy or Johnson............both former naval officers with whom I shared no political ideology.

I served, never bitched and after I was finished I started another adventure in this thing called life.

As to your aspersions that our president has no experience as the captian of the ship of state would you be so kind as to enumerate what quaifcations Obama had prior to assuming the presidency.

Did he ever sign a payroll check for the employees of a company he built?

Did he ever deal with budgets, deadlines, bureaucratic red tape, or anything similar before bcoming a useless (I vote "Present") US senator?

Did he ever pay 132 million dollars in federal taxes in 1 year?

The guy is a jerk, could have done so much for the black people and people of color in our fantastic country, yet he choose to do nothing and destroy the hard work of those preceeding him. You truly have no idea what these issues are about because you live in your lily white world and white bread community and have never, ever spent any reasonable time (years) like I have and see it fr what it really is!

He like most of the rest of the world decided to play Ostrich and ingnore the Islamic nations who want to take over the world and kill people like me and you! Now our current president has to deal with the problems Obama created.

Trump has been in office less than 180 days and if you had your way you would have had him tarred and feathered already and run out of town on a rail.

Just stay under the bell jar Willus, keep looking out at the world with your rose colored glasses and when the going gets tough throw stones and then put your head back in the ground.

I would like to write more but I have a life to live and frankly wasting time on hypocrite bigots like you isn't worth my valuable time.

JOHN'S SUBSEQUENT REBUTTAL:

I hate no one. Nor do I judge anyone,. I just call them the way I see them. My solace in all of this is that someday we will all leave this mortal coil and stand before our God!. Let see how God sorts it all out.

                                                   ~ // ~       ~ // ~       ~ // ~


John, it’s hard to take you seriously when you start your rebuttal with a lie. You have most certainly judged me -- presuming to know my service record, lumping me into your despised “liberal elite,” calling me a “hypocrite bigot.”

Though I shouldn’t presume to know you as well as you do me, I suspect, from all the fear and anger you reveal, that you are a man of limited faith. Oh, you have a great deal of it in yourself, your buddies, and certainly in your beliefs. But, despite playing the patriotic veteran card, you demonstrate very little faith in your country.

Instead of believing as I do that the USA can -- and should - be leading the world into the future, you’re going to bat for a man whose every decision, every action has been a cowardly retreat into our own safe, secure, self-important little shell. This man you think is such a great deal maker, has already dealt this country out of the game. That’s not my idea of “great”-ness.

You say I’m the one with my head in the sand? Supporters of this imbecile have demonstrated a degree of self-deception unparalleled in my lifetime. He’s blatantly serving the interests of big business -- including his own business interests -- over those of working-class Americans, families and a clean, healthy environment. He’s making a fool of you…and you choose, incredibly, to let him do it.

You say he’s only been at it 180 days? Apparently not enough time to accomplish much at all in a positive vein. But it’s sure been enough time to do considerable damage. Through not just his blundering policy efforts, but by his treasonous opening of himself and his representatives to manipulation at the hands of our sworn enemies, and by his shameful personal behavior, he’s already put U.S. prestige and the very integrity of our democratic process on the brink of collapse.

In just 180 days, Trump has made the US the pariah, the laughing stock, of the world. If you’re so proud of our country, how can you support someone abusing it’s time-honored values so badly?

And don’t even get me going on the self-professed “Christian” values espoused by so many in your camp. Very little of what this administration has done anything to do with the values I hold dear as a Christian. Love thy neighbor? Yeah, as long as he’s just exactly like you.

You say Obama was weak on confronting our country’s enemies? This from a guy whose chosen flag-bearer talks tough about our enemies, but has proven he’ll sleep with them as long as they keep telling him how big his…hands are?

I guess you simply don’t care how bad it gets. Much worse health care; the truly needy shoved under the bus; consumers at the mercy of business, higher threat of war; more and more natural disasters, a dysfunctional government, and a dispirited people with no vision for the future… It doesn’t matter; you’ll still call it a victory.

It seems all you care about is that someone -- anyone -- sticks it to that big, bad “liberal elite” who pretends to be so smart. (By the way, John, they are smart about a lot of stuff, and they can prove it -- with facts, not just beliefs.)

Finally, John, while you’re so enraged over my self-righteousness, you demonstrate your own version of the same shortcoming. The difference, as I see it, is that my version aims high. Yours -- the one that believes this egotistical, small-minded little prick is going to save you and your defensive, unimaginative notion of American values -- appears to aim quite low.

TOWN HALL TERROR – How Congressional Republicans Are Dodging Accountability For the Indefensible

During the current congressional recess, legislators have once again headed back to their home districts. Great time to interact with their constituents, right?

Well…this year not so much.

Here in Minnesota, as around the rest of this great, democratic country, Congresspeople—or should I say Republican Congresspeople—are taking their lead from the trump administration, doing anything they can to avoid hearing how people really feel about the disastrous state of our political leadership.

I suppose some credit’s due our U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer for actually showing up at his town hall meeting—though he did feel he had to warn citizens that if they got out of hand he would simply leave. Still, he needn’t have worried that much since they chose a hall seating just 75 people. And no worries about the other 1,000 attendees acting up either; they all had to stand outside.

Newly-elected GOP Rep. Jason Lewis was too scared to appear in person at his gathering with constituents. He conducted his “town hall” by telephone, if you can believe it.

And then there’s GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen. He didn’t even attempt to listen on the telephone to the folks who elected him. Even his spokesperson kept his distance, issuing a prepared statement excusing his boss because of his “long history of meeting with people in his district.” How about this time, Erik?

  Funny, I thought it was the elected 
  public servant who’s supposed to 
  listen.

LIKE THE PLAGUE
Elsewhere, those Congresspeople with the stomach for it faced pointed criticism about everything from the aimless threats to the Affordable Care Act, to gutless, mostly-ineffective immigration policy, to sweeping Trump administration conflicts of interest and collusion with Russia.

But, again, there were plenty who simply turned and ran, in one way or another, from their fundamental obligation to listen to the folks back home.

In Utah, GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz went on the offensive, accusing people at his town hall of “bullying and an attempt at intimidation,” and claiming those who questioned him “included people brought in from other states to disrupt the meeting.”

After his raucous town hall, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy lamented  that “unfortunately, people came in with their prejudices, and with their prejudice, they would not listen.” Funny, I thought it was the elected public servant who’s supposed to listen.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) may just have taken the cake, though. Defending his decision not to meet his constituents in person, he cited “the threat of violence,” referring specifically to the 2011 shooting that severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six others.

 A true conservative vision of American 
 Values…has been hijacked by a very 
 few men who have very little worth  
 beyond that they place on themselves.

LIFE OF THE PARTY
And so it went across the country. Little wonder, I suppose, for a party whose crass new leader, predictably, went into knee-jerk tweets of denial. “They fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, but they’re not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.”

This is what the party that, not so many years ago, could have proudly been called the party of Lincoln, has come to. The party built on generations of thoughtful policy-making, respectful communication, civic engagement, and frequent cooperation across the aisle has, in just a few short years, been squandered by a handful of self-serving, desperately insecure, soulless authoritarians who believe the time-honored values of the United States of America no longer serve their interests.                                                                                                                                                   I hope they—and we—will keep it up.

A true conservative vision of those values, the kind that has motivated men and women who actually stood for something instead of against everything—like Teddy Roosevelt,  Dwight Eisenhower or, more recently, Bob Dole, Olympia Snowe or even Mitt Romney—has been hijacked by a very, very few men who, as leaders, have very, very little worth beyond that they place on themselves. And who believe this nation owes them even more wealth than they’ve already managed to extract from its store of human and natural resources.

And, instead of standing up to the outrage, weak-kneed politicians across the country have chosen this perverted version of party over principle. That’s what all these angry Americans are expressing at the town hall forums across the country. Now, whether the representatives they elected—and who are supposed to be working for them—ever come out of hiding or not, I hope they—and we—will keep it up.

             

SAVE OUR SHIP! – An Urgent Appeal to Select Members of Congress

This is a draft of the letter I intend to send to those Republican members of Congress still able 
to think and act in the best interests of this great nation. 

My goal—and yours, I fervently hope—is to rid our government of the pretender president, Donald Trump, and staunch, as quickly as possible, the hemorrhaging of this great nation's lifesblood: our uniquely-American values—generosity, optimism, vision, creativity, brotherhood ...and just simple decency—for which so many of our country-men and -women have fought 
and died.

Feel free to copy/paste any or all of this content. Maybe you prefer to pull a few quotes and build your own case around them. It's all good. All I ask is that, if you use something, please share the link to this page with as many of your like-minded friends and family members, through as many media, as you can. 

                                                  ~ // ~        ~ // ~       ~ // ~

Dear SENATORS: John McCain (AZ), Rand Paul (KY), Lindsey Graham (SC), Susan Collins (ME), Ben Sasse (NE), Jeff Flake (AZ)

Dear REPRESENTATIVES: Charlie Dent (PA), Walter Jones (NC), Speaker Paul Ryan (WI), Justin Amash (MI), Barbara Comstock (VA)
(These are some of the Congresspeople The Hill, The Washington Post and other media have identified as willing to confront Trump on at least some issues. You may know of other Republicans—perhaps those representing your state—you'd like to implore to reason.)

W ith the election of Donald Trump and his subsequent rush to consolidate power,  
a great tragedy is playing out on our national political stage. And you are in a unique position to thwart it.

I’m accused by friends who support Trump of simply poor sportsmanship—sour grapes, they say—for not just shutting up and taking it as they claim they had to do when Barack Obama was elected.

But this man is different. He has proven amply, through his well-documented comments and actions, that he is a bigot, a misogynist, a pathological liar and a boor. More importantly, he shows, every day, that he lacks the qualifications, knowledge, temperament and judgement to even approximate fulfilling the duties of the most powerful office in the world.

           He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, 
           and promises to govern the same way.

Even his one and only claim to competence, his success as a businessman, is a sham, given the roil of bankruptcies, lawsuits and, ultimately, cheated customers, suppliers and investors he leaves in his wake. He has lived and prospered by lawsuit, and promises to govern the same way—a distraction, to say the least, from the awesome responsibilities of this office.

Perhaps most perilous for the country, this brash pretender clearly shows every single clinical marker of a serious mental condition (narcissistic personality disorder). This utterly self-centered, thin-skinned, impulsive, aggressively insecure, delusional profile is typical of some of the most destructive despots in human history—men who throw not just their rivals, but their own countries and their own people under the bus to feed their insatiable need for attention.

Though elected with a significant minority of the popular vote, Trump already, in just the first few weeks of his presidency, has undermined most of my beloved homeland’s hard-won national values—qualities I’ve cherished and served to defend—like generosity, a just and prudent welcome to immigrants, celebrating diversity at home, an indomitable optimism, a can-do spirit of cooperation, a quiet strength, and a skillful exertion of our example and leadership around the world.

             trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from 
             Lady Liberty's head and stepped on it.

Trump’s insensitive, knee-jerk insults to other countries—including cherished allies—are already undermining our diplomatic and trade relationships with those nations, and threatening the delicate balance of world peace. And his avowed admiration for several of the world’s other despots—including Russia’s own narcissist, Vladimir Putin—sends a truly frightening signal of the president’s intentions.

We used to be a country roundly admired around the world—the much-coveted ideal of democracy. While this reputation has seen its share of tarnish in recent decades, Trump has torn the still-gleaming crown from Lady Liberty’s head and stepped on it. Apparently he favors a mantel of fear and hatred of our nation over one of respect.

Trump and his brazenly-stacked, titans-of-industry cabinet seem determined to simply turn off every moderating constraint on their greed. It is a corporate power play unique in American history. And Trump himself refuses either to divest of his personal business interests or to release his complete tax returns and prove his intention to put this country’s interests ahead of his own and those of his cronies.

           This will require the very best of you.

If not the most frightening implication of Trump’s incompetence, certainly the saddest for me is this: I pray that my grandchildren will not grow up wanting to emulate anything about this man.

Senator/Representative_________, you are in a unique position to literally save our great nation from a despot, one who, in stunning similarity to North Korean boy-dictator Kim Jong-un, has the emotional maturity of a five-year-old.

By continuing to call him out for his lies and excesses, by making the case for impeachment to any fellow Republicans still willing to face reality, by building a coalition of conscience, by communicating your concerns to your constituents and the American people, perhaps you can help turn the tide.

This will require the very best of you—your conviction, your eloquence, your courage, perhaps every dime of your political capital, and, most certainly, your heart and soul.

Please do not let this very small man go one step further in dragging this great nation down to his size!

Sincerely,