Day Before the Election

Hi friend.

Someone asked me last Tuesday if The Letters Project had changed me in any way. “Yes,” I said, simply and emphatically. I know this because a podcast I recorded at the end of last year dropped a week ago. In listening to it, I was reminded that it took real effort, in the beginning, to reach across the political divide. It's easier now.

The Letters Project started as a writing exercise and thought experiment. When I began, as you recall, I no longer had close friends who were very conservative. I had lots of acquaintances, but no close friends. I do now. Very happily, I have reconnected with one of my oldest friends, who happens to be as right-leaning as I am left-leaning. “Dear friend” is no longer an abstraction. My in-the-flesh friend and I exchange messages very regularly. She has a name and a face and my undying affection.

My friend and I saw each other across the divide, reached out our hands and met in the middle. We talked openly about our differences. We disagree about much and yet agreed to work on a letter together—which, as it turns out, won’t see the light of day until post-election (folks are busy) and will likely be part of a new incarnation of TLP as this one is coming to an end. More on that soon. In the meantime, she and I are keeping the lines of communication open even now, even as the election is closing in on us and we are afraid. Both of us. Genuinely and acutely afraid. I can feel us drifting away from each other in these final weeks. I feel the unspoken tension. And yet, we hang on.

Thanks to my dear sister-friend, the fear on the other side is no longer an abstraction. I know her fear. It is your fear. I can name it. I can—and do—care about it.

As she knows and as you know, I am pro-choice. (Abortion letter HERE.) I know you feel differently, as does my old friend, and because I know her heart, as they say, I like to think I know yours to some degree. I know your care and concern for the unborn is unwavering. For the record, I also know that until we on the left stop being so tone-deaf about this issue little else we say matters, and our attempt to reach across the divide will fail again and again. Deep empathy is a prerequisite to deep communication. Understanding this matters in substantive and real-world ways. Our failure to communicate is catastrophic, mostly for women and children…

In any case, I see you, friend. I hear you.

I hear also that you are deeply concerned about the immigration issue, and I know the argument which says the economy is good means very little to anyone who is still struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table.

I am listening.

In the meantime, I have my own fears which I will not downplay. Now is the time for unvarnished truth on both sides.

I fear the economy could, under a Trump presidency, get worse instead of better. Looking back, we know the halcyon days of the Trump’s pre-covid economy were thanks to President Obama. Post covid, we know that inflation was neither the fault of Trump or Biden but, rather, a result of the pandemic itself. Now the economy is literally “booming,” to use a term of art. But as Trump’s current economic plan comes into focus, things look potentially scary, as my husband Jim and I are realizing our dream of being small business owners could come to a screeching halt. If Mike Johnson and his ilk successfully do away with the Affordable Care Act, we will be slammed by insurance premiums and unable to hire the help we desperately want and need.

Meanwhile, Elan Musk, whom apparently Trump will appoint as “Chief Efficiency Officer” if elected, warns us to expect “temporary hardship” on the way to “long term prosperity.” This is, in a word, chilling. Especially given the fact that twenty-three US recipients of the Nobel Prize for economics signed a letter calling Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic agenda “vastly superior” to Donald Trump’s and suggesting that Trump’s tariff and tax policies will be inflationary and will, in all likelihood, balloon the federal deficit. All of which means it’s possible we’ll experience “temporary hardship” in exchange for long-term hardship, while paying $3,000 a month in insurance premiums (Jim and me) for the privilege. Oh, and returning to the “pre-existing conditions” nightmare. (Read this HRC letter about the Trump/Musk economic “plan” and more. It’s jaw dropping.)

All this means real suffering for real people. But you know who won’t suffer? Elan Musk and Donald Trump.

In truth, my concern for the economy pales in comparison to my concerns about the state of our democracy, such as it is, beginning with Trump’s increasingly vitriolic language, which is substantively different than the vitriol on the left. Add to that his evidence-free fear mongering, which seemingly knows no bounds, and his insistence that the only way he can lose the election is if it’s stolen from him. He and his party have laid the groundwork for that lie so effectively, in my view, that violence is virtually guaranteed if he loses. (More on this in a postscript if anyone’s interested.)

I could go on. I could talk about my gay and trans children and friends, my friends in the immigrant community, and my fear for them. I could talk about the fact that my favorite children’s book (THE PROUDEST BLUE) — the one my little five yo friend and I have read 50 times if we’ve read it once — has now been banned. I could talk about women who are dying post Dobbs due to lack of healthcare, the environment, and Donald Trump’s penchant for autocrats and dictators including, most worryingly, Putin.

And Gaza. But that will require a another letter and much, much more time…

I’ve said enough. Between this and my most recent letter, you now know my heart now, too.

We have done all we can do, friend. The election is tomorrow. Whatever the outcome, one of us will be crushed at the end of it. If Trump wins, I will be devastated, but I will accept the result and he will be my President because that’s how it works in America. If Harris wins, I will be profoundly relieved, but I will not gloat. Not in the face of your pain.

Whatever happens, you will still have my undying affection. And we must – we simply must – keep the lines of communication open.

Love,

Sara

PS. If Harris wins, we're going to begin hearing the name David Clements - i.e. the "Evangelist of Election Refusal" - quite a lot. At the very least, we will see evidence of the movement he's been fomenting for years, as his trained election disruptors show up to challenge election results in states all over the country. I'm not going to say much about him other than, I'm nervous. It is his kind of fervor that makes violence likely.

His fervent movement hinges on the idea that the 2020 election was stolen. You know how I feel about this, but we must all make our own informed decisions. I urge you - all of you - to watch the following three films - including the one made by Clements himself, and to form your own conclusions. At the very least, watch the Clements film "Let my People Go," and "Stopping the Steal" to get both sides of the story.

If the election was not stolen - if this is, in fact, that Big Lie, Clement's movement is horribly misguided, and any violence stemming from this untruth is unnecessary, criminal, and a direct assault on our democracy. Clements is not alone. Everyone from Trump's handlers to the Proud Boys have had years to plan another insurrection. I fear it.

"Let my People Go," was produced by Clements himself. Though the evidence he cites re: Dominion has been disproven, the film offers unfettered insight into what drives him and his movement. (I can't find an official blurb.)

Stopping the Steal Recounted in detail by former staff members of the Trump administration, Republican political appointees, and elected state officials, Stopping the Steal tracks the movement to discredit the 2020 presidential election. Unfolding chronologically, the documentary explores and debunks the claims of ballot tampering, illegal immigrants and deceased people voting, and hacking or malfunction of Dominion Voting Systems’ electronic ballot machines. 

64 Days Through never-before-seen footage, exclusive access to the proud boys, eyewitness reports, unreported emails, videos, social media posts, interviews with politicians on both sides of the aisle, and unprecedented access to the investigators supporting the January 6 Committee, 64 DAYS chronicles the most important period of our modern republic—the 64 democracy-bending days between the election and the devastating January 6th insurrection.