A Letter to Trump Supporters

Dear Trump Supporters,

For the last several days, I have waited to write a post. Maybe part of me was afraid, but mostly, I wanted to be respectful of your feelings, knowing the intense amount of fear and stress so many of you were feeling. As the counting draws to a close, and certifications begin, I have now interacted with a few of you enough to know what I want to say.

First of all, I know you are scared. If you voted for Trump, you had big reasons to feel the way you did. I know you are suffering. I’m sorry. I’m thinking of you and praying for you all day every day. I believe that the way the election shook out at state levels and country level could allow ALL of us to work towards our goals together, and I hope that I am right, and that you will see it and feel peace soon.

Secondly, you are also probably angry, that was a heck of an emotional backflip this week and it dragged on forever. I am so sorry you went through that. I wish all of the ballots had been counted at once somehow so that horrible arc would not have hurt you.

Third and lastly, I wanted to offer some words of comfort, and maybe you won’t believe any of them, or maybe one thing I say will help just a little bit.

I watched this election like a hawk. I watched every network to see which ones had the very least bias, even pointing out to my friends that Fox News suddenly developed a liberal bias that was more than surprising. In every moment of free time I had, I watched as each governer, Secretary of State, senator, democrats and republicans alike, explained their states process for voting, showed us video footage of the count, and documented any difficulties or concerns they were having. They taught me so much about the teams of both Republicans and Democrats that observe the counting process to make sure it is fair, the triple check “canvassing” that is done to make sure each ballot is legal and legitimate, and how much our entire country is committed to a legal and fair election.

Chuck Todd at ABC (abc was the very last to call states for Biden, and very careful to be as bipartisan as possible) taught me that the point of the media covering the election is to prevent fraud. He pointed out that we all know fairly accurately the count of the votes that are left at any given moment, if new ballots are found we are told, and they explain what happened to us, we watch video, we become the accountability partners(through media coverage) for the whole election. He noted that that is such a beautiful thing in our country, because some other countries do their elections in private, so the leaders could say or do whatever they wanted and no one would ever know. We know. I know so much more about Georgia and Wisconsin’s voting process than I ever thought I would.

I know that right now that may not make sense to you. The media does have a bias, and that’s true. However, a conscientious viewer can watch the different channels with different biases and get a fairly clear idea of what is going on, especially if you can find a channel that gives both parties equal air time and is respectful to both sides.

An analyst on ABC also pointed out that if Trump is right, we should all be concerned, and he should bring evidence to the courts and those cases should be heard. We agree with you on that. However, these cases are being thrown out because Trump is not bringing evidence. 19 Republican attorney generals including two who served under President Bush wrote a letter letting the American people know that his claims are untrue.

I don’t want to belabor that point because I know there are other media sources telling you I am wrong. We will have to wait and see how everything pans out, and I pray that it all turns out fairly. But I wanted to let you know, from the standpoint of someone who worked tirelessly to create as unbiased of a perspective as possible, this election was run fairly, your vote did count, and we care about you. I also want you to know that Joe Biden has repeatedly come out to let you know that he cares about you too. Tonight in his speech, he said “I know you are disappointed, I have been there, but please give us a chance.”

Trump supporters, please let’s all “stop the demonization” and start treating each other like people again, not monsters. Trump is not a demon, and neither is Biden. We are people, all trying to do our best with what we have been given. May God’s peace be with you whatever you are feeling tonight,

Julia O’Donnell