In five days, our country will take a leap into a dark, unknown abyss.  I am truly afraid, (outraged and angry), but genuinely terrified that policy and decision making on behalf of our country, and therefore much of the world, will trickle down from an incompetent, self-aggrandizing buffoon through a misguided mélange of opportunistic, wrong-thinking advisors and rubber-stamping political robots.

It was my intention to reach out to tell you how much I admire you, your overt goodness and propriety, your respect of others, your love of family and your tenacity in the face of shameful disrespect and collusive obstruction by your political opponents.  I have marveled at your calm, public demeanor in assuming the responsibility for a collapsed economy, a world in chaos and a divisive, woefully uninformed electorate.  I wept tears of joy for your wins in 2008 and 2012 and wept again on Tuesday for the utter loss of hope that your departure signals.  But, for now, I have no room for optimistic rhetoric about “this too” passing or “brighter days ahead”.

Sadly, I do not hold you blameless for allowing the ascension of the monsters in our midst.  The miraculous machine you assembled to mobilize the passion for your first election should have remained an existential priority.  Certainly, the shit-storm you faced on day one of your Presidency was mind-numbing, but not continuing to engage with disenfranchised citizens, allowing that triumphant exhilaration of each vote counting to recede back into complacency, lost the Congressional majority that has brought us to the brink of dismantling everything good about America.

Unlike those of the overly commercialized media would have us believe, the ACA is not the signature act of your Presidency.  Truth be told, it’s nearly as bad as the Republicans, (who came up with it in the first place), claim.  Written by health insurance lobbyists, it vastly enriches an industry with little or no concern for either the health or the care of individuals while providing too expensive coverage with fraudulently implied benefits.  That millions of previously uninsured are now poorly insured, is not a win.  You should have stood your ground for a fairer, long overdue single-payer National Health Care System.  Now, the backlash, (rallied by the same lobbyists that threw you under the bus), will result in the loss of the few beneficial elements of the ACA, as the new regime allows for the free trade and good will of the health insurance industry to make all the rules, (as if it was ever any other way).

Your legacy will be found in whatever remains of the decent and humane work you accomplished after the ascending vultures are finished ripping it apart.  And, if there’s little left to remember, perhaps in some Post-Apocalyptic-Trumpian Age, a conscientious data archeologist may uncover any one of a number of your speeches that contain your most inspiringly repeated, seven-word mantra, “Because, it’s the right thing to do.”  If only we had listened.

Hi to the wife and kids.

Your friend,

Joel