April 16, 2022: A Letter to U.S. Senate Candidate J. D. Vance

 

Dear Candidate Vance, 

I heard today that you have been endorsed by former-President Donald J. Trump in your quest to be Ohio’s next U.S. senator. I know you must be excited to join the company of such esteemed endorsees as Herschel Walker, for a seat in the senate from Georgia, and Judge Roy Moore, who had hopes of being elected from Alabama in 2018 – until his candidacy was torpedoed when multiple women accused him of sexual abuse when they were teens. 

Mr. Walker, too, has run into headwinds now that his ex-wife’s request for a protective order against him, filed in 2005, has hit the news. Not to mention a second police report, from another woman – who said Walker threatened to “blow her head off” after she ended their romance. 

I know you went to Yale, like one of my daughters. So you must have some brains. You also enlisted in the Marines, as I did back in 1968, so you must not have bone spurs, like Donald says he did.

Here I am at Camp Pendleton, defending democracy with a toilet brush.

 

In any case, I realize you must be thrilled to carry the Trump- imprimatur into the GOP primary. I know you once called Mr. Trump “reprehensible.” Not to mention “noxious,” “offensive,” and an “idiot.” Back in 2016, I know you said you voted for Rep. Evan McMullin, a Republican congressman from Utah, who ran as an independent, instead of for Trump. 

I would love to chat with you at your convenience, because I have a few questions I’d like to pose. I have a great deal of respect for Rep. McMullin – even though I vote almost exclusively blue and pulled the lever for Hillary that year. I wonder. Did you ever listen to the tape of a June 2016 meeting made by Rep. McMullin, during which Rep. Kevin McCarthy said he thought there were two people Putin paid – Trump and Dana Rohrabacher? 

Did you know Rep. McCarthy said he never said that? Then the free press said they had a tape. Then he said, okay, he said it, but it was all a joke?

 

Anyway, a few questions, sir. Do you think Putin paid Trump? Do you think McCarthy was lying when he said he never said what he said? I do. And you went to Yale. Surely, you must be smarter than me! 

How about all the voter fraud Mr. Trump keeps whining about? Do you ever get tired of all that whining? As for fraud, have you seen any evidence of significant voter fraud, yourself? If so, I would love to talk about it. 

We both know (or should) that Ohio’s attorney general has uncovered only 27 possible cases of voter fraud regarding the 2020 election. Do you think, if all 27 individuals voted for Biden – and I doubt they all did – that that would indicate voter fraud played a important role in Joe Biden’s win? 

I think people who vote twice should be punished. Don’t you agree? Still, 27 possible cases out of nearly six million votes does not strike me as a real threat to democracy. Does it you? 

By comparison, does it worry you that Trump’s own former Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, who spent 44 years in the Marines, described the man who just endorsed you as “a threat to the Constitution?” 

I definitely do!!!

 

Do you find it amusing, that your new hero, Donald J. Trump, insists he was cheated out of a second term – but in an Arizona recount, demanded by his allies, his opponent, Mr. Biden, gained 99 votes? And Trump lost 261? How about the recount demanded in two Wisconsin counties, where Mr. Biden also gained votes – 45 in Dane County, 132 in Milwaukee County? 

I also wonder. Have you listened to the phone call then-President Trump made to GOP election officials in Georgia, asking them to find 11,780 votes, just one more than needed for him to “win” that state’s 16 electoral votes? I urge you to listen, sir. If you want to be Ohio’s senator, you must be informed. The recipient of that phone call – a member of your very own party – has stated that he took it as a threat. 

Do you believe elected officials should threaten those in charge of the elections on which their futures depend? Would you threaten Ohio officials if you lost? I hope you would not.

 

Finally, I know we both had to take an oath on the day we enlisted. You may recall, it went like this:

 

I (STATE YOUR NAME) DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR (OR AFFIRM) THAT I WILL SUPPORT AND DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AGAINST ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC; THAT I WILL BEAR TRUE FAITH AND ALLEGIANCE TO THE SAME; AND THAT I WILL OBEY THE ORDERS OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE ORDERS OF THE OFFICERS APPOINTED OVER ME, ACCORDING TO REGULATIONS AND THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY JUSTICE. SO HELP ME GOD.

 

So, when Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, and other zany Trump aides were suggesting he send in the military to rerun elections in several states that voted blue, what would you have done if Trump gave that order? 

As I well remember, we were often reminded that we were required to follow only lawful orders. Did you worry, then, in October 2020, when Gen. Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found it necessary to promise that the military would play no role in deciding the coming election? Did you ever ask yourself who Gen. Milley thought might order the troops to interfere? 

Well, sir, good luck on your run for office. I trust I’ll be hearing from you soon. I can at least say, I am relieved that no one has accused you of sexual harassment or smacking around your wife. So keep up the good work!

                                                                                        Semper Fi,