October 6, 2024
President Joseph Biden
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Biden:
As a poll worker and someone who has written political and social commentary for nearly forty years, I was extremely disappointed, although not totally surprised at the results of this past Tuesday’s elections.
While the campaign messaging on women’s reproductive health and abortion from Democrats up and down the ballots across the country resonated in most places, they were unable to overcome Trump’s relentless campaign mistruths and outright lies about the economy, crime and immigration.
I fear those who dismissed Trump’s remarks as mere campaign rhetoric and attracted by Trump’s appeals to the fears, prejudices, and hopes for a return to a utopian past which never existed may … as millions of Germans who voted for National Socialist Party candidates in 1933, mistakenly and tragically believing the extreme promised of the party’s leader was just political theater and not a precursor to what was to come discover American is not immune to their democratic republic possibly devolving into an autocracy, not as the result of a revolution but through the ballot box.
As your highly successful, but sadly misunderstood and mischaracterized, term of office comes to a close, I would respectfully offer four suggestions.
- While you have always put your country above all else, give serious thought to your family and pardon Hunter for any current or prospective federal convictions and charges, lest Trump and his allies pursue him endlessly. I know you have said and continue to state you would not do so, your family deserves less, not more tragedy in the future.
- Pardon all individuals currently protected under the DACA program as well as all undocumented immigrants either married to a US citizen or who have children who are US citizens, so long as they have no felony convictions or credible charges pending from all past or present federal immigration violations. President-elect Trump has promised to pardon many of the insurgents who were convicted of storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and should never receive any such clemency.
- Pardon any members of your Administration and others whom Trump has threatened to go after and prosecute for their legitimate actions to which he took offence. Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Special Counsel Jack Smith and even Kamala Harris (not specifically protected under the Trump v. United States decision) come quickly to mind. There may be others.
- A recommendation I previously made, award Liz Cheney the Presidential Medal for Freedom, to which her actions in the wake of the January 6th insurrection clearly meet the criteria. These people are truly American patriots, as opposed to Rush Limbaugh and others on whom then President Trump bestowed such a sacred honors.
While Republicans may scream like hell, each is within your Article II authority, they can protect many good and decent people who could otherwise be summarily tossed out of our country, become ensnared in a costly and reputation-damaging legal battles, pragmatically and potentially insulate to some degree the negative impact Trump’s deportation plans could have on the economy and the Social Security Trust Fund and recognize an individual who unselfishly put her country first recognizing its consequences would damage her personal reputation and end of her political career.
Further, there are those advisors closest to the 47th president would are actively advocating for not only more rollbacks but possible outright bans on abortion services (using the Comstock Act as justification) as well as LGBTQ+ rights to marriage equality and protections from discrimination in the workplace and housing. Then, there are the goals of the Chrisian Nationalists.
They can also be a positive benefit for your presidential legacy and possibly augur well for Democrats in the 2026 mid-term elections.
