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An open letter to Trump voters on the inauguration of Joe Biden
Dear Trump voters,
I know how you are feeling right now. Four years ago, on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as President of the United States, I wrote this open letter to him. “I cannot wish you success, though, Mr President,” I wrote, “because your success would come at the expense of too many people I love and too many values I cherish.” That was true in 2017. It remains true now.
This letter is not to convince you to do what I could not. I try not to be hypocritical, so that means I do not expect you to support Joe Biden. I am not going to smugly tell you “he is your president,” as many of you told me four years ago. You were technically right, of course. He was legally my president, as Joe Biden is yours. But that’s not what “not my president” meant to those of us who chant it, and I reckon it isn’t what it means to you.
This may come as a surprise, but I don’t want you to shut up. I don’t want you to stop protesting. I want you to be — to borrow a phrase from the UK — the loyal opposition. Democracy only functions if there is a robust contest of ideas, if the minority holds the majority to account. That is now your job, as it was Democrats’ job under Donald Trump. We don’t fall in line because we do not have an emperor. We have a president, and he…
