12/23/16
Dear Assailant-in-Chief,
Article 5 in the Constitution describes how it may be amended. We all know, or we should, that the first ten amendments were proposed and ratified more or less immediately. But even without those there is an inherent sense of the Constitution as a "living document," one that might require tinkering on from time to time. I have some thoughts about how it might be altered to address some current problems....The gap between the popular vote and the Electoral College results is actually not nearly as high on my list of priorities as gerrymandering, corporate personhood and money as speech. I think if any one of those were changed, the others would be easier to fix, and the problems with the Electoral College would either become a matter of consensus or take care of themselves.
That reminds me. I saw a clip of Mitt Romney on Jimmy Kimmell and to be honest, I still think he comes off super awkward and as if he's trying too hard to be personable. I want to like him better since he showed a little personality and backbone but I just can't. I do know that when he made that "corporations are people" remark that what he meant was that corporations are made up of people...but the problem there isn't actually that corporations are run by alien artificial intelligences, unless he knows something we don't and is holding out on us. (It would explain a lot, honestly). The problem is that some people's free speech shouldn't be unfairly outweighed by that of others. Most especially, some people should not be able to exert economic pressure on others to vote or donate or support one candidate over another, and that is precisely what the Citizens United decision allows corporations to do...one of its most pernicious, and least well-known, effects. Being able to achieve your political goals because you have more money than the other guy is fundamentally undemocratic, and the contradiction, unless corrected, is going to tear us apart.
There's a common blind spot among the rightward and libertarian-leaning, in my experience: They think oppression can and does only come from government. Whereas in my experience, government mainly leaves me alone and is sometimes helpful but the most oppressive forces in my life have been 1) destructive social norms, especially sexism and heteronormativity, and 2) my employers. I suspect that is common to many people on the left, and may be the real dividing line politically. That difference is not irreconcilable so long as both sides grant the validity of the other's point of view...but that kind of good faith from conservatives is in short supply. And since you are the walking avatar of bad faith on this subject in particular as well as many others, I do not hold out much expectation of improvement. Like Michelle Obama, I am not hopeful.
Yours sincerely,
Sara Amis
Citizen of these United States of America
From Dorine Jennette:
PLEASE JOIN ME IN WRITING THE ASSAILANT-IN-CHIEF
Please join me in bombarding the Assailant-in-Chief with letters: https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact. I will write to him every day through his first 100 days in office, maybe longer if momentum holds. I am asking others to write just ONE letter. Let's not just vent our grief to each other--let's speak truth to power together. Please WRITE and please SHARE this plan with your friends. Pass it on!
You do not need to be a woman or an assault survivor to address the Assailant-in-Chief as such. If you are a man who has a daughter, a sister, a wife, a woman colleague or friend you respect, or a mother (hint: that last one is all of you!), then you have something to say to the Assailant-in-Chief. Your letter might be a brief one-liner. That's great! Please send it! Women need our allies now. Here's the link to DJT's contact page--this might take you one minute or less! https://www.donaldjtrump.com/contact
Or, maybe you will start a related project addressing any one of the many groups Trump has already harmed . . .
As we talk with each other, let's break the bubble and also send our complaints straight to the source. He won't read them and won't care if he does, so probably this is a placeholder action while we figure out what we're really going to do . . . but it's something.
Dorine's posts can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/dorine.jennette
PS from Sara: I've taken to just tweeting these at him. He's not going to read them anyway, but I might as well use the platform that he actually responds to. *snort*
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