Donald Trump
Dear President-elect Trump,
Congratulations on your historic victory — the greatest political upset in modern American history. Having listened carefully to your speech in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, I hope you’ll follow through on your commitment to heal our country, and be president for all its citizens.
Full disclosure: I didn’t vote for you. I didn’t vote for your main rival, either. I had insurmountable reservations about her character, aggressive foreign policy stance, and most importantly, her commitment to appointing Supreme Court justices who’d defend abortion rights as a sacred liberty somehow enshrined in our Constitution.
But at the same time, Sir, I had deep reservations about your own character, which I hope you’ll now overcome. In particular: While I appreciated your words in defense of the unborn, I couldn’t reconcile these words with the way you’ve spoken about women in the past, and have allegedly treated several of them.
I would implore you to recognize an overlooked yet fundamental truth: that a direct connection exists between male chauvinism and mistreatment of women, and abortion. How do you think so many women wind up in crisis pregnancies? I know of only one case in all history where an unwed mother got that way without a man’s involvement (and that turned out alright).
Typically, however, there’s a man involved. A man who feels empowered to be no gentleman, do what he will, and leave the woman to deal with the consequences—“her problem.” Often, those on the Religious Right blame women and their “doctors” (I cannot call one who takes innocent life a medical professional)—but somehow, the man who was involved gets a pass.
Women are condemned for not maintaining unilateral chastity, but as for men, “Boys will be boys.” This is shameful hypocrisy. I now ask you, by way of an atonement for things hopefully in your past, to convert your heart and mind and put the onus on men to be real men—and not worship the false idols of fallen machismo. There would be fewer abortions if there were fewer swine.
One more thing before I go. There was another issue in your platform that I wholeheartedly endorsed. You cast aside generations of bipartisan orthodoxy by signaling hope of working with Russia, rather than seeing that nation as our greatest existential threat. The Democrat and Republican foreign policy establishment (one group) sought to bring you down for this.
Ironically, along with shining a spotlight on the plight of working people, this was an area where you overlapped with Bernie Sanders. I hope you’ll now follow through. Don’t let the hawks cozy up and seduce you. They will try.
I hope you’ll visit Russia and make friends with Vladimir Putin. And while you’re there, I hope you’ll visit an Orthodox Church. I think you would benefit greatly. And so, in turn, would our nation.
