Dear Donald,

I hope you don’t mind the informal greeting, but I have seen so much of you in the past few months that I feel I know you, even though we’ve never met, and I doubt that you know me. (You can google me, though, and find out.) Along with millions of other Americans, I’ve been watching you as you’ve presented yourself and your ideas in televised debates, campaign rallies, and interviews. I’ve listened to various of your supporters extol your personal virtues and their belief that you can make America great again. (I don’t as yet really know what that means.)

With this modest preamble, I want you to know that I am writing to thank you. No, I’m not your fan or supporter, as I’ve been infected with the Bern, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate what you’re doing for the country. I’m grateful. But my appreciation and gratitude take a bit of explaining, a bit of backstory as we say here in Hollywood.

Along with watching and listening to you, I’ve listened to the many voices that do not believe you can make America great again. In fact, many good people in the U.S. believe you are The Second Coming; no, not of Christ, but of Hitler. I’ve read where you’ve been called a pathological liar, psychopath, fascist, misogynist, bully, racist, xenophobe. Others have said you are a narcissistic, vulgar, crude, ignorant, bottom-feeding madman. Oh my, Donald, you certainly do stir the pot! Why, some people claim you have single-handedly destroyed public civility and subverted democracy for all time!
I’ve heard these “anti-Donald” people say that you advocate, as is apparently evidenced by your own words and actions, violence against, well, pretty much everyone. I know you get excited about torturing people, and it seems you can’t wait to kill women and children. Only today, I read about your interest in modifying the 1st Amendment so you could imprison anyone who says something about you that you don’t like. Wow, now that shows a set of balls!

Poor thing! It can’t be very pleasant to have so many people say these things about you. That’s why I want you to know that I do not hate you, and I do not fear you. As I said, I am grateful to you.

You have shown something to all of us that is more threatening, more diabolical, more deeply disturbing than a litany of what your rabble-rousing rhetoric and pugnacious personality might incite. You have shown us the credulity of tens of millions of Americans who have gleefully joined your mob. You have shown us that mainstream news organizations will feast upon and profit from your volatile shenanigans. You have shown us the simmering underbelly of rage and hate that infects our society. You have shown us how easy it is for us to focus our disappointments and resentments on a particular “other” and blame them for everything we don’t like. You have shown us how tenuous is our allegiance to reason and evidence, in favor of unhinged passions. You have shown us that unless we pacify our own minds we will be at war with everyone, always. You have shown us how, without empathy, we can only objectify others and marginalize their suffering. You have shown us all this, and much more.

Thank you. Now, we know what is ahead of us. Even if you were to be taken to the Mother Ship by an army of alien beings tomorrow, we would have to face and figure out what to do with what you have shown us. You, sir, are not the problem. I do not blame you. You have not created this. You have merely revealed it. You, sir, are nothing but a demented clown who has managed to stay one step ahead of the people in white suits trying to get you back onto the farm. You, sir, are of no consequence whatsoever.

However, what you have shown us is a problem, a gravely consequential problem. It is our very society that we must be concerned with, and do something about. We’re going to have to redress our individual and collective mindsets and beliefs, the ones that have allowed you to exist in our midst. When we have done this, you will disappear, simply because no one will pay attention to you.