Dear Putin-Lover-In-Chief,

It wasn’t enough that you encouraged the Russians to interfere with our election in 2016 (which they are gearing to do again in 2020).

It wasn’t enough that you chose to believe Putin’s denial of this Russian interference over the findings of our intelligence agencies, the employees of which put their lives at risk for the sake of our country.

It wasn’t enough that you disparaged Mr. Mueller’s detailed findings of the Russian interference in our elections as a “witch hunt.”

Now it seems you are hell-bent on doing all you can to appease Putin, to perform his bidding, to serve his interests instead of America’s.

How else to explain that you are moving to deprive Ukraine of $250,000,000 in promised military assistance, which would help fight the Russian-led invasion of that democracy?

How else to explain that you are alienating our allies by pushing to have Russia – a dictatorship and threat to world peace – readmitted to the G-7?

How else to explain that you fail to condemn or denounce Russia’s invasion of Crimea or its aggressive actions against allied forces in the Black Sea?

Why can’t you be a president who defends the United States and its allies, as opposed to its enemies?

Why does your idea of “America First” really mean “Russia First”?

The voters are wondering.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear No-God:

Even Hitler didn’t think he was God, but you apparently do, retweeting the ridiculous, obscene, and blasphemous suggestion that you are the “second coming.”

Only a paranoid, schizophrenic narcissist like you could imagine himself as God, given your racist beliefs and crude behavior, given your adulterous lifestyle and your friendships with child-molester Jeffrey Epstein.

God wouldn’t mock a human being with disabilities, but you have.

God wouldn’t castigate US war heroes, but you have.

God wouldn’t lie repeatedly, more than 10,000 documented lies, but you have.

God wouldn’t suck up to murderers and dictators, but you have.

God wouldn’t order children to be ripped from their mothers’ arms and stuck in cages, but you have.

God wouldn’t praise the Nazis, calling them “some very fine people,” but you have.

God wouldn’t want to promote gun violence, but, by your spineless reaction to the NRA, you have.

Instead of pretending you’re God, why don’t you act like a decent human being?

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

PS: I am asking every reader of this letter to share it on Facebook and other social media!

Dear Mr. Trump,

I hope you’re having a wonderful vacation golfing up a storm, while the 31 people recently killed in two mass shootings are buried. It was so nice of you, in fact, to provide those celebratory thumbs-up photographs! Who wouldn’t want to endure the grief of losings of a loved one if they just be in the picture with a smiling, self-congratulatory president?

But, instead of golfing, you could be doing all of the following now:

• Demand that McConnell call the Senate back into session NOW to engage with House-passed gun violence bills or use your own power, under Article 2, Section 3 of the Constitution to convene the Senate yourself due to the extraordinary circumstances of our country’s affliction with gun violence;
• Demand that Congress enact universal background checks;

 

(In fact, as pointed out by the Washington Post’s Fred Hiatt today, in February you threatened to veto the House bill if it ever reached your desk.)

 

• Demand that Congress ban assault-style weapons, as it had done from 1994-2004;

(In fact, again as pointed out by Mr. Hiatt, you’ve promised to the NRA that no gun violence protection bills will ever be enacted while you’re president.)

• Demand that Congress ban large-capacity magazines;
• Demand that Congress enact red flag bills, that allow law enforcement officers to remove guns where there are credible threats of mental illness or domestic abuse.

A concerned, emphatic president could do all of these things, to show he or she was serious about gun violence prevention, but you won’t.

A concerned, empathic president would give up a few rounds of golfs and spend his time browbeating recalcitrant Republican legislators into doing what the vast majority of the Americans want, but you won’t.

Right now, the slaughtered and their families and friends are crying out in anguish and asking “Why not?”

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

 

 

 

Dear Hater-in-Chief,

It doesn’t absolve you of your responsibility for a mass shooting when you Tweet “God bless them all!” and express your condolences. It doesn’t absolve you of responsibility when you state – too late by far – that we should all come together and not hate. As more than one had tweeted to you, “you have divided America more than any person in history.” I quote here @keanothedog.

Obviously, you didn’t pull the trigger of the AK-17 that killed at least 21 people in El Paso. But the syllogism of causation is compelling:

Trump expresses hatred toward immigrants, calling Mexicans rapists à Trump repeatedly contends that the United States is being invaded and that this so-called invasion is a national emergency on our Southern border à Trump praises American Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, calling them “some very fine people” — Let’s call that A.

Trump supporters, most of whom are armed, hear Trump rhetoric (A) and feel both emboldened to express their own hatred and feel threatened as well à Indeed, many of these Trump supporters, because of Trump rhetoric, feel that their privileged way of life is in danger – Let’s call that B.

Those who feel threatened because of Trump rhetoric and who can get their hands on guns – assault weapons easily available, massive magazines easily available [we’re a country of 330,000,000 people, but more guns are owned by people than there are people] will try to kill those whom they perceived as the enemy. That’s C.

A + B = C

Without A, there’s no B and no C.

Or, to use numbers, with no vile rhetoric from Trump, 21 human beings in El Paso would still be alive today.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

Following the initial rounds of debates leading up to the Democratic presidential primaries, it’s obvious that there are a score of candidates so much better qualified than you for the nation’s highest office, candidates who actually care about the majority of the American people, not only the richest of the rich.

We Democrats have candidates who can actually think carefully about the policies they propose, instead of just appealing to voters’ emotions without reason.

We Democrats have candidates who strive to bring Americans together, as opposed to your strategy of fostering hatred between whites and non-whites, class warfare, and religious bigotry.

We Democrats have candidates – all of our candidates, in fact – who want more and better health care for Americans and believe that health care is a right, as opposed to your administration’s position that the protections of the Affordable Care Act should be demolished, chief among them the ability to transfer health coverage without regard to preexisting conditions.

We Democrats have candidates who can easily point out your many lies, your false promises, your scurrilous behavior, your treasonous acts in encouraging Russia to continue to interfere with our free elections, among others.

You can make up all the nasty, racist, pejorative nicknames you want, and yes, it will appeal to your cult, but these nicknames will be not nearly enough to keep you in the White House.

When you’re gone, we will celebrate and work hard to restore the integrity of our great country.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

Stop lying. It’s really getting rather boring and old, ya know?

Mr. Mueller said that Russian interference in our election was not a hoax, as you continually claim, so, for once, stop lying.

Mr. Mueller told us that Russian interference in our democracy and free elections is continuing as of this very minute, that it is a great danger to the very existence of this country, so stop lying.

Mr. Mueller pointed out that his investigation was not a “witch hunt,” so stop calling it that. Why shouldn’t we investigate the way a deadly and murderous foreign adversary – remember Khrushchev’s promise that the Soviet Union would bury us? – has interfered with our democracy? So, for once, stop calling Mr. Mueller’s entirely appropriate and necessary investigation a “witch hunt.”

Mr. Mueller made clear that he didn’t even investigate “collusion.” So stop claiming that his investigation proves “no collusion.” Your lies are entirely boring.

And the truth about your collusion is obvious; you invited Russia to interfere in 2016 and you’ve already invited Russia to meddle again, promising to accept their help once it’s offered. It’s no surprise your Republican collaborators in the Senate refused to consider a House-passed bill that would strengthen our protections against such foreign interference in our elections.

Mr. Mueller emphasized that his investigation did not exonerate you from the charge of obstruction of justice, so stop claiming “total exoneration.”

All in all, Mr. Trump, you’re a pathetic, repetitive, and boring liar, even though your crazed and cultist supporters would rather believe you (or say they do) than the words of an American hero (and a lifelong Republican).

Disgust is too light a description of the regard that a majority of Americans have for you, Sir.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear 45,

Your number’s up. From here on, it’s downhill for you, downhill to the bottom where you rightfully belong.

What number? 45, of course! It’s provable by simple math.

Let’s do the math together, Sir!

There are nine investigations currently under way about your finances.

Forty-five divided by nine equals five (45/9 = 5), and we know that there are five key traits of your supporters: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201712/analysis-trump-supporters-has-identified-5-key-traits

1. Authoritarian personality syndrome (the advocacy of strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom)

 

2. Social dominance orientation (a structure in which purportedly high-status group crave dominance over the low-status ones for their perceived self-interest)

 

3. Prejudice (appeal to bigotry)

 

4. Lack of Intergroup Contact (racial and ethnic isolation of whites who have not interacted with other groups)

 

5. Relative Deprivation (the belief that they have been deprived of something they are entitled to, typically based on a skewed conception of what one is entitled to)

I don’t list these in order of their importance, because they’re all important. They explain you, but they also explain why you’re going to lose in 2020.

The vast majority of Americans care highly about personal freedom and are not racists. The vast majority of Americans don’t seek dominance over sub-groups of Americans that they perceive are lower status. The vast majority of Americans have not been living in racial and ethnic isolation. There’s five!

The vast majority of Americans feel you’ve cheated your way to wealth: cheated on taxes, cheated your workers, cheated your contractors, cheated those who gave to your (not) charitable organizations. There’s nine!

Ergo, you’re on your way out. In 2020, we will be out to vote and by voting demonstrate that you are unacceptable as president.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Racist-In-Chief,

We have known all along that you are a racist, ever since you and your father refused to rent to blacks until you were forced to. Ever since you lied about President Obama’s birthplace. Ever since you praised the white nationalists and Nazis in Charlottesville. Ever since you decried Mexican immigrants as rapists.

And now, that traditional racist taunt: “Go back where you came from,” directed to women of color, most of whom were born in the United States and one of whom achieved citizenship as set forth by law. It’s no surprise. It’s just part of your continued effort to divide Americans, one from the other, the way you built your presidential campaign.

You may have some supporters who feel that they are not racists, but they strike me now as a small minority. Your cult followers, whether “personally” racists or not, are contributing to your division of the country, to your fomenting hatred, by looking the other way, by being afraid to speak up against you. That makes them just as guilty as you.

What general do you praise? Robert E. Lee, who fought a war against his own country in an effort to preserve slavery of black people. Some heroes you have, Mr. Trump, those who wanted to enshrine slavery as an American institution or die fighting to do so.

As George Conway called you in his op-ed piece Jul6 16, you’re a “pathetic bully,” but you’re much worse than that as well. As he pointed out correctly, you’re a “racial bigot” of the lowest class.

I can’t do better than quote the conclusion of Conway’s piece: “What’s at stake now is more important than judges or tax cuts or regulations or any policy issue of the day. What’s at stake are the nation’s ideals, its very soul.” Thank you Mr. Conway.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

I know that you say you’ve had a falling out with Jeffrey Epstein, but what does your prior friendship about him say about your character?

According to the New York Times, you and he were the only participants in a party that consisted of roughly two dozen women at your Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. This was a “calendar girl” competition that you – Donald J. Trump – requested, and obviously it was Epstein who supplied the girls.

This is the same Epstein who was convicted of sex-trafficking, the same Epstein who abused dozens of children.

This is the same Epstein about whom you stated: “He’s a lot of fun to be with … he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Now, you claim that you somehow couldn’t avoid Epstein. Really? You asked him to set up this party of girls at your place because you couldn’t avoid him?

Does this friendship with a child molester reflect on your present character and fitness for office? You bet it does.

It’s yet one more instance of the same personality trait that enables you to suck up to dictators like Putin and Kim. If someone is powerful or rich or both and can indulge your delusions of grandeur, then you will connive with them, regardless of morality and common human decency.

And please don’t tell me that Bill Clinton was a friend of Epstein’s too. He didn’t ask for a “calendar girl” competition to be set up by Epstein, and anyway the shameful conduct of others, if any, doesn’t excuse your own shameful conduct.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger

Dear Mr. Trump,

One of the biggest lies you’ve ever told the American people is that you’re going to create a wonderful health care system to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Sadly, you’ve gotten some people to believe these lies; they don’t want to admit you conned them into voting for you.

Among your many lies is that you support continued insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Yet, on Tuesday, your Administration is set to argue in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the ACA is entirely unconstitutional. In particular, you attack the “the ‘guaranteed issue’ provisions, which prohibit insurers from denying coverage because of an individual’s medical condition or history.”

This is not fake news. This is your own brief, at p. 2

So, if you have your way in court:

No coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Also, if you have your way in court:

No subsidies to help people by health plans through ACA marketplaces.

No expansion of Medicaid in thirty-six states.

No ability for young adults to stay on their parents’ health policies until age 26.

Clearly, taking health coverage away from desperate people doesn’t concern you or the Republican party one bit. There is no “wonderful” Republican plan. Even when your party had control of Congress, it couldn’t pass a so-called “wonderful” plan.

You’re rich. Your Republican friends in Congress are rich. None of this health care stuff matters to them or their families in the least.

It matters only to people who have to choose between buying food for their families or seeing an affordable doctor. It matters only to people who can’t get coverage or care for their pre-existing cancer.

No problem for you and your Republican buddies, though.

No problem until we vote in 2020.

Very truly yours,

Bruce J. Berger