Hi.  It’s me.  Lisa.  Your friend, sister, aunt, extended relative, co-worker, motorcycling buddy.

For those of you who have been around a long time, you know I am a former Republican.

Now I am part of the angry, liberal mob who wants to take away your guns, open the borders, and provide free stuff to illegal aliens all while allowing anyone with a pulse the ability to vote illegally.  And while we’re at it, let’s open all the prisons and let those criminals come into our neighborhoods to rape and pillage.  I get a monthly check from George Soros and get all my information and talking points by attending the Deep State weekly conference calls, directly from Hillary Clinton.  Oh, and those bombs that got mailed to Trump’s top-12 list of enemies? Yeah, we did that too.  Just to start a war with all those patriotic Christians who believe Trump was sent here by God to save America.

Yep.  That’s me all right.

Remember when we were all smarter than to believe such crazy stuff as that?  Remember when you went to the grocery store and right there at the check-out counter was the National Enquirer and The Weekly World News (always with a space alien on the cover).  And you would laugh at the ridiculous headlines and shake your head and wonder how anyone could believe such garbage?

Well, I feel like I’m in that grocery line every minute of the day.  Except it’s not funny anymore.  It’s scary as hell.

You know me.  And I know you too.  I know where you come from, what struggles you’ve had and what came easily for you.  And because I know you, that is why it is so hard for me to accept that you have signed up to be a passenger on the crazy train that is the Trump Administration.

I wonder about it constantly.  How did we come to a place in this world where we stand on opposite sides of a ravine and can’t meet in the middle anymore?  Our conversations are stilted and tense.  We work hard to avoid any mention of current events.  Hell – we can’t even talk about the weather anymore.  Weather is a controversial subject.

Simple policy differences are not the problem here.  You are lined up with a corrupt liar who does everything he can to divide us.  He can’t even pretend to try to unite us.  He doesn’t want to.  He wants to keep us divided and mad at each other.

Wars used to be so simple.  One country would go to war against another country.  You knew where they were, what they looked like and they even wore uniforms, so you could tell the good guys from the bad guys.  The battlefields were drawn, and the carnage was carried out in a fairly efficient manner.  Sure, there was collateral damage, there always is.  But it was managed.

Oh, wait, why did I bring up “War,” you ask?  Well, because we are in one.  This war has been brewing for a long time, long before Trump took over.

White versus black.  Rich versus poor.  Immigrants versus citizens.  Gay versus straight.  Christians versus everyone else.  Liberals versus conservatives.  Do you think we got here by accident?

Unfortunately, in this war we all lose.  We lose our friends, our family, our co-workers, our motorcycling buddies.  

Make America Great Again.  That is what you voted for, right?  You had some idea that we had become less great and God Damn It that swamp needed draining.  And it’s all because those Snowflake Liberals want to take all your money and give it to those low-lifes who won’t get out and work for a living.  They want to turn us into a bunch of Socialists with affordable health care, free-and-open elections and a clean environment.  

Two years ago, America was actually pretty great.   Right now, I barely recognize my country.  And I barely recognize you.  My friends, my family, my co-workers, my motorcycling buddies.

What happened to you?  When did you quit caring about common decency?  When did you quit caring about men who cheat on their wives with porn actresses?  When did you quit caring about a President’s finances and taxes?  When did you quit caring about children taken from their parents?  When did you quit caring about every single vote being fairly cast and counted?  When did you quit caring about people going bankrupt because someone in their family got cancer?  When did you decide that science isn’t real and neither is the truth?  When did you decide that journalism was fake and that it’s ok to body slam or even murder reporters?  When did you start supporting the likes of Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un?  When did you decide that Canada, Mexico, Germany and the UK were no longer our allies?  When did you decide that an assassination attempt of TWO Presidents, a Vice President, a Secretary of State, a Congresswoman, a Senator, a CIA Director and others all in the same week in the same manner was no big deal?  

In a little over a week votes will be tabulated.  And we’ll find out if Americans want a check on this President or if they are totally fine with having one party in control of every single aspect of our lives.  We don’t know if all the votes will be counted or if our election systems have been hacked because our President and Congress don’t think we need to spend the money to ensure their security.  We don’t know how many votes will be thrown out or how many people will attempt to vote but will be turned away.  But I guarantee you that if there is this Blue Wave everyone is talking about, Trump will tell you the whole thing was rigged.  Further dividing us.

This is the America we live in now.  We now must doubt the very sanctity of our elections.  Again, this is no accident.  We are meant to doubt it because we are at war.

A war none of us common citizens wanted but through lies and manipulation we now find ourselves in.

Yes, I am out of the closet and I am liberal.  And I know you – because I once was you.  And I am certain you are rolling your eyes and scoffing at me at this very moment.  But I don’t care about that.  I care about what is good and moral about America.  I care about stupid patriotic things like equal rights for every single person.  I care about the words on the Statue of Liberty and how this country allowed my ancestors to flee their homes to start a new life here.  I care about my father fighting fascism in World War II and what he would think about the man sitting in the Oval Office.  I am certain he would not approve.  I care about having a Commander-In-Chief who uses complete sentences and proper grammar.  Someone who can be a true leader and unifier.  Every single past President in my lifetime was able to be that for us.  Even Nixon could be presidential.  But not this one.  

It’s not too late to shake off the stench of Trump and all the anger and corruption he has wrought on us.

Which side of history do you want to be on?  Despite our differences – I still love and care about you.  And I’m worried for all of us.