Dear Reader,
You probably are like me; a bit liberal, pretty urban, pretty worried about Trump. And that's kind of the problem. You see, we live in a digital world of our own creation, surrounded by people who make us comfortable, people who think, look, act, vote, buy like us. We marry people like us, we live around people like us, and we love us, don't we? Go us!
But this letter isn't for us; it's actually a love letter to conservatives. Please share this with them.
To all the #NeverTrump Conservatives, Libertarians and Republicans:
I need to let you in on a secret. You see, whenever I and my mostly liberal friends get together for single origin lattes and gender-affirming trigger parties, we spend a good amount of time pretty much jerking each other off in an orgy of mutual political affirmation. It's a lot of fun, we explain to each other how smart we are, we talk shit about you and your families, we hate on white people and pour salt on the "stupid Republicans" and their crazy orange-faced blowhard. "It's all your fault", we say, "Why didn't you nominate Jeb? ...Who by the way is also a fascist and totally unfit to be President".
Don't get me wrong, there are real conversations within the American political spectrum to be had, but I'm not talking about conversations. I am talking about debates. Debates mean that in order for you to win, the other side has to lose. And we aren't even debating YOU; we are just debating the caricatures of you we have invented, trading jibes about you amongst ourselves. I'm talking about being dickheads. I'm talking about shitting on people who disagree with us, tarring them with a broad brush, plugging our ears with our fingers and ululating over Trump like a New Jersey 9/11 celebration rally (RELAX, COMRADES, I'm KIDDING).
But here's the thing. What you are doing right now, over the dinner table with your Trump supporting uncle, at bars with your friend from high school, between breadsticks at the Olive Garden with grandma, is what I have never done. You are changing the minds of people who I have purged from my reality. You are standing tall against Trump, conversing with actual supporters and absorbing the real consequences for it. It's not that easy to see someone on TV arguing for your side against the other side, and say, "You know what? Fuck that guy."
This actually is what will win the election, and it is something done one patient, respectful and loving conversation at a time. I'm from Maryland, I live in New York City, everyone I talk to agrees with me (Everyone except the one old guy in my building who mails letters to the DoD with a picture of Obama photoshopped with an ISIS flag EVERY Monday *this is a real person*).
You are showing that you are a true conservative. Believe it or not, I for many years didn't think people like you actually existed. I was wrong. I thought you were all just secretly a little racist or blinded by party politics. I was wrong; I respect you immensely for your stance. (For what it's worth, I don't think most Trumpites are bad people either).
For many on the left, it is difficult enough to vote for Hillary, I can't imagine how it is for you. You have sincerely held beliefs about the size, power and scope of government. Your party is going to collapse; you may lose every future political fight you care deeply about for the next decade. Many of your well-meaning, principled representatives will lose their seats in congress, either to Democrats or far-right Trumpites. Good people will leave the Republican Party and politics forever in disgust.
I've seen my own #NeverTrump friends and how some on the Internet react.
People are calling you a traitor, people are blaming you for the future communist-neo-fascist brown shirted Supreme Court overlords that Hillary will bring to take your guns, end freedom and convert your dear Nana to Islam.
Salaam my brothers and sisters, salaam.
Yet, you persist with your neck firmly out because you love your country and you hold your values and principles as sacred. You are getting shit from all sides, and while it would be easier to just hide in a box until December, you are fighting the most important political fight of our generation. To the Republican elected officials who have come out against Trump, and the political costs to come, I take my hat off to you.
I have been a dick to you all, and I am sorry. You don't deserve it, you are doing more for this election than I am, and it is people like you that will save us. You will not get the credit you deserve. Hillary will get the credit, and you know it to be true.
I will be watching her over-ballooned nomination teary-eyed, while you gaze and parse the smokey ruins of the Party of Lincoln. But from the ashes of your party, I know leaders will rise, and with people like you I know that better ideas and better politics are soon to follow.
It does not take courage for me to come out against Trump (the opposite, actually). I have nothing to lose by attacking him, only 4 Supreme Court seats to gain. Hell, I'm already buying shares in pant-suit mutual funds and getting both my Holy Koran and Communist Manifesto ready to swear on when Hillary wins and Comrade Obama becomes Polit Bureau Chairman for Life.
Maybe I'll see you at the party (I promise it won't be a book burning). I will toast your health and give you that knowing wink, because you stood by your principles and saved the Republic.
#NeverTrumps, You Da Real MVP.
-Michael Jang Parker