www.latimes.com/...
More than 600 American writers, including Stephen King, Junot Diaz, Cheryl Strayed and Dave Eggers, have signed an "open letter to the American people" pledging their opposition to Trump's candidacy.
The letter, posted on the website Literary Hub and credited to authors Andrew Altschul and Mark Slouka, states in no uncertain terms that Trump "deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society" and "denigrates women and minorities."
I know what you’re thinking. 600 writers? So what? Trump won’t care and neither will the people who support him.
And you’d be right. These writers mean nothing to him. It’s clear in Trumpland that smart people are the enemy. The evil intelligentsia, perennially demonized. It never fails.
But seriously. Donald Trump? Have any of those people in the GOP given the slightest thought to what that means?
Why not Kim Kardashian? Both are media moguls. Both have spun an illusion about themselves aided solely by the passive voyeurism of television.
Really, GOP—why not just nominate Kim Kardashian for President? Or Ted Nugent? Or Bill O’Reilly? Sean Hannity, maybe? The guy who owns Papa John’s Pizza? Any one of your right-wing self-promoting yahoos would be good enough, it seems to me. What made you settle on this particular idiot, is what I simply don’t understand. It seems like he was just there at the right place, at the right time, and could have been anyone, really. When “qualifications” or any history of public service are no longer concerns, the field really opens up.
But it just happens to be a reality-TV no-class bottom feeder like Donald Trump. No one with any more real talent than a talent for shallow, crass self-promotion and bilking people out of their money. This is the best you can do. I understand. Okay.
That’s who you want to decide my seven year old’s future. That’s who you want in charge of the nuclear codes. That’s how little you think of this country. I get it. Our grandparents and great grandparents laid down their lives at Normandy so you could bring us to this.
Lyz Lenz, a writer from Iowa, is one of those declaring opposition to Trump’s candidacy and what it represents:
America is burning. You might not see the flames, but you can smell the smoke. And we’ve been set on fire by one man—Donald Trump, a Flem Snopes of our modern-era. Trump is now the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. And perhaps he will not win the presidential election, but even after he is gone Americans still have to contend with the fact that our country has been burned. Trump supporters will remain, and how do we even begin to understand a place so deeply divided between those who never saw Trump coming and those who hold onto him as the standard bearer of their integrity?
The list of writers who signed the letter includes Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners and reads ”like a Who’s Who” of American literature, according to the Los Angeles Times. Of course many writers equally revolted by the prospect of a President Trump don’t have the luxury of expressing their political views without risking their careers and those of their publishers, but it’s still refreshing to see ignorance, bigotry and nascent fascism called out for what it is by the nation’s best authors. The letter, credited to authors Andrew Altschul and Mark Slouka, is printed in full below:
Because, as writers, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power;
Because we believe that any democracy worthy of the name rests on pluralism, welcomes principled disagreement, and achieves consensus through reasoned debate;
Because American history, despite periods of nativism and bigotry, has from the first been a grand experiment in bringing people of different backgrounds together, not pitting them against one another;
Because the history of dictatorship is the history of manipulation and division, demagoguery and lies;
Because the search for justice is predicated on a respect for the truth;
Because we believe that knowledge, experience, flexibility, and historical awareness are indispensable in a leader;
Because neither wealth nor celebrity qualifies anyone to speak for the United States, to lead its military, to maintain its alliances, or to represent its people;
Because the rise of a political candidate who deliberately appeals to the basest and most violent elements in society, who encourages aggression among his followers, shouts down opponents, intimidates dissenters, and denigrates women and minorities, demands, from each of us, an immediate and forceful response;
For all these reasons, we, the undersigned, as a matter of conscience, oppose, unequivocally, the candidacy of Donald J. Trump for the Presidency of the United States.
And all of that is true, as are the choice quotes from Twitter following the release of the letter. My favorite:
And that’s a good line, and there are wonderful jokes out there.
But blaming this all on Trump is sort of missing the point. What this writer feels (and maybe you too) is just a weary sense of disgust. As Ellie Shechet writing for Jezebel wryly notes, this election is vividly showing us just how low American culture—and apparently a good portion of the American people—have sunk to even be in this position in the first place:
In a lot of ways, this election has been about powerful groups and individuals—the media, the Speaker of the House, and now, I suppose, famous authors—coming up against their own essential powerlessness in the face of genuine danger. It has been a gigantic bummer to watch America beat its collective head against the wall trying to squish something that, much like a cockroach, absolutely refuses to be squished.
Why is that? Because ultimately this isn’t about Trump—it’s about every individual American who allowed him to get where he is right now, every pathetic blowhard on the Teevee like Wolf Blitzer and everyone else in our corporate media who for the last six months fairly begged for the chance just to lick whipped cream off Trump’s naked body. Every breathless cutaway from real news to the latest outrageous pronouncement of Sir Orange Hair because their sponsors and advertisers have to sell that Cialis and Trump is so good for ratings.
But, Stephen King, Master of Horror, in the final analysis it’s the people in this country who pull the voting levers that will bear ultimate responsibility for this monstrosity.
Look! They’re all around you.