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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLetter from Bill Howell to Trump
Don't know of Bill Howell, but I like his way with words:
Dear Mr. Trump,
Its taken me a while to realize this and to admit it, but Im grateful to you.
For the past few months Ive spent a good deal of time lamenting your campaign and the poison it has so effortlessly generated. Ive watched our country imploding, our public discourse become polluted, our political climate grows ever more corrosive, and wrongly assumed you were to blame.
Its only lately Ive come to understand that you havent manufactured our current national uglinessyouve simply revealed it.
By saying the irresponsible, mean-spirited, ignorant things you say so freely and so frequently, youve given other like-minded people license to do the same. Youve opened up the floodgates for our corporate sewage to flow fully. People no longer conceal their vile mess, they now revel in it, they broadcast it and retweet it.
Youve made bigotry and racism socially acceptable again and that has been a kind of twisted gift because its allowed me to really see people; not as they pretend to be on the surfacebut in the very depths of their wounded, weaponized hearts.
Over and over as your campaign has persisted, your supporters would tell me that they like you because you speak your mind. It wasnt until recently that Ive realized that you speak their minds. Youve given credence to their prejudices and made those prejudices go mainstream.
Thanks to the terrible ground youve broken, politicians, pastors, friends, and strangers, both in person and on social media now regularly out themselves as hateful, intolerant, and maliciousand they remind me just how close they are to me, just how deep the sickness in us runs, and just how far we have to go together.
Youve emboldened people to be open about things they used to conceal for the sake of decorum, and though it turns my stomach, I know that this is the only way we can move forward; to have that cancerous stuff exposed fully so that it can be dealt with. Our progress as a nation is predicated on authentic dialogue, no matter how brutal and disheartening that dialogue is.
In other words, youve let us know what were really dealing with here and while its been rightly disturbing, its also been revelatory. Thats the thing about that kind of harsh light: youre forced to see everything. Beauty and monstrosity equally illuminated.
Now dont get me wrong, I think youre the least qualified, least knowledgeable Presidential candidate we may ever have had participate this far into the process, and if you somehow were elected Id fear gravely for the world my children would inheritshould it survive your Presidency at all. I believe youre reckless, bitter, and completely reprehensible; the very worst kind of bully.
But whether you win or lose, youve already allowed me the blessing of Truth; about me, about you, about other candidates, about our nation. And in the process youve also shown me that I am not alone in resisting you and this ugly thing youve revealed about us. Youve generated an equally loud, equally passionate response to it and this is where I find my hope these days.
I find it in those for whom equality isnt just a cheap buzzword, its the most precious of hills to die on.
I find it in those people who refuse to be silent in the face of our impending shared regression.
I find it in those willing to be bolder in defending the inherent value of all people.
I find it in the growing army of those who will not tolerate hatred as a core American value.
I find it in those who reject violence as our default response to dissension.
I find it in the ever rising voice of people who will not let malice and bitterness represent them in the world.
Today I find my hope in those who, like me, will not be complicit in allowing bigotry and intolerance to become a source of national pride, because weve seen where that leads.
Yes, Mr Trump, youve unearthed our hidden sickness and youve allowed it to go viral. You brought every awful thing about us out into the open.
You will NEVER Get My Vote!