BE A HERO, JOE!

Dear Mr. President,

We are Democrats, Mr. President, of all different stripes and positions on the spectrum of values possible within our blessedly diverse and contentious party.  We are all of one mind on at least one thing: we want you to cap your long and distinguished career of public service by an act of heroism unprecedented in American history. We want you to withdraw your name from consideration as the Party’s presidential nominee so that the convention can choose someone else.

This would be an act of statesmanship on your part at least equal to any described in John Kennedy’s celebrated book, Profiles in Courage.  It would be the crowning achievement in your legacy and the short tagline that  would make future generations interested in all the rest of what you have done.  “This man sacrificed his own ambition in order to save American democracy.”

We will not drag you through the polls and punditry that collectively and painfully demonstrate how vanishingly slender your chances of re-election are at this point.  Everything in your stalwart fighter’s character rebels against this knowledge, and surely screams within you to fight back.  Of course you are a fighter, but the long years of service to your country have just as surely made you wise as well.  Discretion is the better part, yes, of valor.

It is your true friends who will tell you what you need to hear -- perhaps most especially when you do not want to hear it.  To be sure, your enemies are saying something superficially similar, but from them it is grounded in hatred, whipped up to a frenzy by those whose ambitions have eviscerated any ideals they once had.  This petition, on the contrary, comes from those who admire and respect you, and share the ideals you have maintained steadily for a lifetime.

The list of what Donald Trump would do to damage the nation you and we love is extremely long, and need not be recounted here.   It is worth adding that he would begin (but not end) by doing everything in his power to obliterate all that your presidency has accomplished.  

You have always been the regular guy known as “Joe from Scranton.” It is with affection (and more than a little sadness, and more than a little pride)  that we address you now, familiarly:  Be a hero, Joe.  Withdraw.

Signed,

Gene Anderson                                          New York, New York

Judith Robinson                                          New York, New York