We are living in a terrible, dystopian time. This election could be our last chance to stop the country we love from sliding permanently into fascism. I beg of you, readers, that you support us at The Lincoln Project and our quest to return America to her former glory: killing poor people but with good manners.
Look, there are a lot of things that Joe Biden and I don’t agree on. We have our differences! But fundamentally, we both know that right now it is imperative that we restore the soul of America. We need civility again. In the America I grew up in, we would always say we were sad about it when poor people died. When we saw kids with leukemia whose parents weren’t rich enough to buy them good health insurance, yes we would pull the plug on them, but not before we said, “Lisa, I really wish you could live.” And we truly did think it would be ideal if there were some way that she could live.
But now, it seems like our “Cheeto-in-Chief” doesn’t give an S-word about acting like a civil human being. Yes, we’re appreciative that he’s cut taxes for the one percent, sure, and his constant judicial assaults on the Affordable Care Act remind us of a better, simpler time, but we’re immediately snapped out of our daydreams when he mispronounces Afghanistan. How can you not even know how to pronounce the name of the most fun country to bomb? Does he even read his intelligence reports telling him that he should strew more landmines around Syrian schools, or does he just pass them on and say “okay” in that disgusting voice of his.
His typo-ridden tweets condemning protesters brings great shame to an office that should never use divisive language about protesters that isn't properly spell-checked.
All that we’re fighting for are basic American values: blaming poor people for their own poverty in caged language about the American dream. How sure we are that with a little focus, hard work, and elbow grease, they’ll be able to pull themselves out of their homeless shelters and into Fortune 500 companies.
Gone are the days when politicians who supported the war on drugs looked good in suits. Now, the president is kind of ugly. And that’s a damn shame.
There’s no better feeling than watching the big man—or woman (nothing would make me happier than watching Carly Fiorina erode voting rights)—in charge deliver a speech that’s 90% platitudes with the polished intonation of an Ivy League education.
When we get a new president in office who loves America the same way you and I do, I’ll finally sleep easy again knowing that he is deeply saddened by the events that happened to you and your family. And don’t get me wrong: I could not disagree more with all of Joe Biden’s plans to prevent the events from happening. If I had the choice, I would elect a good, smart, kind, conservative who would take the money that working-class families would be using to pay for food, medical bills, and education, and let me use it to buy another yacht, but who would still wish, in some kind of theoretical abstract, that those families could’ve eaten.
I believe in the American people—I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t. I know, in my heart, that we still know how to be nice about evictions, and arrests, and the denial of basic human services to people who will literally die if they don’t receive them. I believe we still know how to be sly and cagey about racism. In the ‘80s, politicians would do this with a smile. I know we are capable of doing that again.
In this election, I ask you not simply to choose between two candidates, but to choose between an America where we admit that we’re fine letting all the poor people die, and one where we’re willing to fully commit to saying we wished they didn’t. Please exercise your right as an American citizen to vote with your conscience in this election, but obviously not in every election, and preferably not if you’re a minority.
Warmly,
Your Friends at The Lincoln Project