No... You move.

I'm sitting here at my desk in shock. I know the world continues to spin, and that people will still be themselves, but I'm sorely disappointed in my country. America. My web address, americanhorrorwriter, both .com and .net, were my pride. I chose them because America was the land of the free, home of the brave, land of equality and tolerance. Now... I'm heartsick. I'm ashamed of being an American. I'm ashamed at my home state, Texas.

Not surprised, mind you. Just ashamed.

I'm both surprised by, and ashamed of, my adopted state, Pennsylvania.

We lived, for eight years, with a great man at the helm of our country. Love him or hate him, disagree if you must. We made strides toward peace, toward equality, and toward leaving behind a world our children could be proud of. In one night, the people of the USA brought all that to an end.

Here's what we are going to lose:

• The Supreme Court will be dominated by conservative justices for a generation.
• Same-sex marriage will likely be outlawed on a national level.
• A woman's right to choose will end.
• Social Security will be cut. Or even eliminated. 
• The rich will get more tax breaks.
• Medicare will be cut or repealed.
• Obamacare will be repealed.
• We are likely to head into a recession, possibly a depression. 
• There will be no action on climate change.
• Our international relationships will be destroyed. 
• NATO will be crippled or disbanded.
• Oil drilling, fracking, and pipelines will get tax benefits and govt subsidies. 
• We are likely to end up in a war with Iran. 
• We might see the end of the free press. 
• He will gut or close the Department of Education
• He will gut or close the EPA

In addition, take a look at what else this means. Now it's acceptable to assault women and grab them by the genitals. Now it is acceptable to molest or rape young women. Now it's acceptable to be a racist toward Hispanics and those of African or Asian descent. Now it's acceptable to discriminate against people in the LGBT community and people of a different religion. Now it's acceptable to lie to the American public without fear of prosecution, and to threaten to destroy the fact checkers. Social commentary will be met with threats of lawsuit, and he'll win because his party also has control over the House of Representatives and Senate. Donald J. Trump will nominate two Supreme Court Justices. 

Do you realize what you've done? 

A man who has no regard for the "sanctity of marriage" is now in charge of defining what that means. Your mothers, sisters, wives, co-workers and friends no longer have any control over their own bodies. Ready to retire?  Tough shit. Social Security and Medicare won't be there. And your children? They'll inherit a world that grows progressively hotter and is running out of resources faster than you can believe. And those of you who want to rise above your past through education? You're stuck. Education is about to be gutted too, which means that we will become a nation overrun with ignorance. 

For the first time in my life, I accept no blame for this. Why? Because I voted. I encouraged people to vote. I voted in the primaries and made my voice heard. I actually read the issues instead of trusting the sound-bytes that were screamed on television. I saw what this walking pile of excrement was, and voted against him. 

But you... 

Who's to blame? You who followed the advice of certain nihilistic people and didn't vote because "it doesn't matter anyway" or because it was your way of protesting an imperfect system. You now will live in the future you made. Your complaints over the administration or even the system are null and void, a bullshit argument about a system you couldn't be arsed to change. Scream all you like. You did this. 

You who voted for a third party, as was your right... Take a look at the numbers. Notice how the percentages by which the walking cheeto got elected are the numbers which your not-a-chance-in-hell candidate got? I get it... No single snowflake feels responsible for the avalanche. But you are. 

You who scream "but Hillery is worse!" Do you really mean that? Worse than a child rapist? Worse than the man who bankrupted all of his companies while covering his own ass? Worse than the man who molests women and says the minorities in this country are the cause of all the evils? Because if you really believe that, you didn't actually read about the candidates, did you? 

You who actually voted for Trump, you should get down on your knees and beg forgiveness of your mothers, daughters, friends that aren't white, and the rest of the country that you've hurt. You should beg forgiveness, and be prepared when it will not be given. 

To all my friends who are women, to my daughters, to my wife, to all my friends who aren't white, who aren't Christian, and to all the members of the LGBT community... I'm sorry. I still support you. I stand beside you and will hold you up when you get knocked down. I will defend your right to happiness and to choose what you do with your own body and what consenting adults do in the privacy of your own home with my dying breath. I pledge, now and forever, that I will stand beside you.

It sounds like a hollow promise, I know.  After all, I'm a white male. I'm privileged. I know it. 

But I truly believe that America, MY America, should be a place of equality. I truly abhor racism and sexism and discrimination and subjugation of any kind, even though some times I'm blind to it. I'm thankful to the people who point it out to me because only through awareness and education can we truly fight it. And maybe I sound naive. Maybe I sound like a SJW or hopelessly deluded. But I, the individual, do not want my children, or their children, to grow up in a world where people are discriminated against because of the color of their skin or for any other reason. 

How can we fight this? Education. Why do you think he wants to gut education? Because the more educated we become, the more we actually think, the more we will begin to question his motivations. The more we will evolve into a more enlightened species. The more we will come to realize that discrimination for any reason is wrong. 

There's a thing going around right now that's a quote from a comic book. I'm posting it here. 

So here it is. These words are not mine, but I hold them dear. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

So the question is this:  What do we do now? 

I have one solution. Everyone who has something against Trump, everyone ever molested, touched, groped, robbed, cheated, or destroyed by him, stand up. Get him in front of the court. Have him federally indicted. Send him to the big house before the white house. Please. 

To all my friends, I love you. To the people that will lose their rights, I love you. I'm sorry. We will overcome this. We have to. We have to be better than this. 

SAJ

An Open Letter to Donald Trump

Dear Donald -

I can call you Donald, can't I?

I've thought long and hard about your campaign for presidency, and I've come to a few conclusions.  I'd like to know if I'm right or wrong, just between you and me. See, I know what really happened. I know how this started. I just need to give this voice because I'm pretty sure I'm right here.

So, to begin with, this whole "I'm-running-for-president" thing was a publicity stunt, wasn't it?  I mean, let's face facts, you haven't been relevant in years, so you figured that a far-fetched presidential campaign would put your fifteen minutes of fame on life support for a little while, didn't you?  Don't deny it. You know that's how it started out, don't you? See, Donald, I don't blame you. Jump up in front of people, make a few outrageous statements, lose miserably, and you'll be back in the limelight in no time, right?

I'm right, aren't I?

Only you didn't count on racists, sexists, and idiots who would actually agree with those asinine statements, did you? So you tried to up your game with even more insane claims, statements designed to infuriate, hate speech and attack-formatted speeches. But it didn't work, did it? You resorted to name-calling, open mocking, and fear-mongering, and it still didn't work.  People still voted for you. No matter how hard you tried, you still couldn't get people to realize what a major shit-storm would occur for our nation (and the world) if you became president of our country.

And it scared you, didn't it Donald?  It did.  I know it did.  I'm right, aren't I?

So then you did the only thing a man like you could think to do:  You got worse. People couldn't possibly vote for you if you made yourself out to be a modern-day Hitler, could they? Of course not. No one would be that stupid, would they? But then, you underestimated them, didn't you? The anti-intellectuals. The fellow fear-mongers. The people who hate everything different than themselves. The self-righteous, the entitled... You underestimated them, didn't you? The louder you squawked and the more outrageous and terrible you became the more they ate it up.

And then another curious thing happened. You forgot. You forgot why you said those things to begin with. The potential power became intoxicating, didn't it Donald? You began to believe your own hype and forgot that everything you said was farce, didn't you? And now, with your own party members calling you out, you think it's too late, don't you?

It's not too late, Donald.  It's not. I mean, let's be honest, you've always been a walking parody.  From your augmented wives to your lies about being a self-made millionaire to your ridiculous branding schemes (Trump Steaks?  Really, Donald?), you've always been more of cartoon than a real person, Donald. But you can recover a shred of self-respect. It's really easy, and people will respect you for it. Here's how:

Admit it.

Get up in front of the world and just own up to your own bullshit. Get up there and tell the world that I'm right. It was a grab for a few more minutes of fame that got out of hand. You can totally paint yourself as a saint, Donald. Just raise your hands and tell us how you were trying to cast the harsh light of ridicule on the ignorant who chose to vote for you. Tell us how you really don't believe in being a racist chauvinistic douchebag, and how you want to bow out of the race, but couldn't figure out how to gracefully do so. Then exit the race before you do more damage. Exit the race before you damn this country to the horrors of your presidency. You're already the butt of thousands of jokes that span over twenty years.  Don't make the USA the butt of an even more tragic joke just because you're afraid to admit it was all a publicity stunt.

Unless I'm wrong.  Unless it wasn't a publicity stunt. Unless you actually are the ignorant racist, sexist elitist that you seem to be.

And if you are, I hope the educated and empathetic outnumber your legions of hate-mongers.

Sincerely,

Scott A. Johnson
Author, Father, American