Dear Trump Voters (Morning-After Draft)

To my neighbors, friends, and family members who voted for Trump:

I had prepared to apologize to you this morning.

I was going to say I’m sorry that you feel betrayed by the Republican leadership of the last twenty years; that they promised you platforms they could never deliver, ignoring demographic and cultural trends, just because they knew you would re-elect them; that even when their own prophets pointed the way out of the desert, they kept you busy building houses of sand.

I was going to say that I am sorry for the way my liberal compatriots have lumped you together with the worst elements of humanity and assumed you must all be the same — one big basket of deplorables; that we liberals have so conveniently painted all Trump voters in those colors; that we are so ready to embrace diversity on our own side, but too stingy to admit it on yours.

I was going to say that I am sorry that you feel marginalized, disempowered, and duped; that the number of similarities we all share is, frankly, staggering, and leaves me wondering just how we ended up at each other’s throats this year.

I am still sorry about most of those things.

Not that it matters now.

Today, the day and the podium are yours. And so I will sit down and wait to hear what you have to say.

I’m waiting to hear you say you’re sorry for the way your candidate has run his campaign; for the way he has run down women and minorities and LGBT people; for the way he has bullied people of color (even his own supporters); for the way he has mocked people with disabilities; for the way he has threatened those who challenge him “like a dockside bully”; for the way he has pinned the blame for every ill of the past twenty years on those who are already weak, poor, and disempowered.

I’m waiting to hear you commit to the conciliatory conversations you promised once this campaign was over. I’m waiting to hear you reassure us that this in indeed still a nation of liberty and justice for all.

I’m waiting for the moment when your anger is appeased and you roll out some specific plans to make America great again.

Go ahead. The whole nation is waiting.