You are not your party. You are not who you voted for.

Exercising voice is important, particularly in time of distress and in matters concerning rule. I believe that everyone should be openly discussing issues of rights and stability with allowances for differences of opinion and perspective. Regardless of your party, our collective goal is national stability and a high quality of life. Trump is the president, that is fact. However, it is unacceptable for a president to lie to the people (Cf. David Muir interview with Donald, January 25th http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/transcript-abc-news-anchor-david-muir-interviews-president/story?id=45047602). Honesty isn’t the most complex fulcrum of discussion, but it's a primitive issue on which most individuals can agree: dishonesty is wrong. Trump, disdaining grace in victory, has chosen to make public and defend a claim of voter fraud, citing a Pew Research Center (PRC) report as his evidence, despite the fact that the report doesn't address the probability of voter fraud, but rather the inefficiency of the voting registration databases. When told that the author of the report, David Becker, attested to the fact that the report doesn't support voter fraud, Donald Trump bristled and expressed incredulity: “Really? Why did he even write it?” Donald followed up this statement by asserting that the author was "groveling" and then went on to talk about how "reporters like to grovel," which is a nonsensical answer. In my opinion, he was repeating part of his litany that the media is always dishonest, as if that somehow justifies or makes sense of the POTUS predicating a lie on evidence he did not understand. In any event, whether or not he won the popular vote is irrelevant now that he is POTUS, so it's a troubling topic upon which to state an obvious lie based on "evidence" that doesn't support it. If he's willing to lie on a trivial topic when the stakes are low, what might this person do when the stakes are high and the deception is not so conspicuous? If Trump simply misinterpreted the report, then Trump either didn't completely read the report, lacks adequate reading comprehension, or has simply chosen to deny the reality of the metrics, any of which should be wildly alarming. At the same time, Trump has attempted to undermine the credibility and assessment of national intelligence agencies (CIA and FBI), has made efforts to silence media outlets as well as control the voice of governmental departments, and has attempted to redraw the superficial and largely unimportant portrayal of his inauguration and voting statistics. A human being who is unable to accept defeat on trivial matters and is unwilling to tolerate even the existence of criticism is not someone who values an objective honesty or the wisdom of perspectives. Someone who cannot see weakness in themselves will make decisions on the assumption that they cannot make a mistake.

Trump wants information and conclusions to come from him, and him alone. Nations that control information in such a way are oppressive communities in which to live compared to our mode of life. What Trump cannot yet do is prevent the people from speaking out against his methods and behavior. However, if citizens turn aside and allow him to lie to them directly with impunity, thereby allowing him to be unaccountable to factual reality or the consequences of poor judgement, then our system of government is in peril. A collective complacency amidst this political environment could be the first step in a series of lost opportunities for the people that eventually results in a ruling government which elects itself, penalizes free speech, and rescinds other civil liberties which have been hard-won and are being taken for granted. Trump might not survive long enough to see that reality, but he might create a precedence for naked deception of the people as an acceptable modus operandi for the president. Do these words seem dire and unrealistic? If they do, I ask one to consider that the current president is not being transparent about clear financial entanglements domestic and abroad, has put forth a cabinet bereft of public service experience but rife with special-interest dependent wealth, has already spent time filing his re-election, and is insistent on rushing to rapidly drafted executive orders despite the fact that his party firmly controls both the senate and the house. Trump is already displaying a preference for rule by edict, cutting off the voices of elected officials where possible, decrying free sources of information that disagree with his opinion, and neglecting to address the concerns of his citizens regarding conflicts of interest in finance or scandals involving a foreign power (i.e., Russia).  Indeed, creating a narrative about voter fraud, despite the fact that it's an unsubstantiated claim made outlandish by its assertion that the supposed fraud was on the order of 3.5 million votes and injurious to Trump alone, could be the first step on the path to consolidate control over the voting process and to further limit voting rights of the people. Trump believes that the only way he can lose is when someone else cheats (cf. claims of rigged elections pre-election and voter fraud post-election), so in his reality the whole voting process may not make sense to him, since he does not believe he can lose a fair vote. The farther we move from this point in time, the more people will forget that his claims about voter fraud as it pertains to the Pew Research Center study were patently false, and the more likely it is he can set forth legislation, perhaps an executive order, which attempts to alter voting rights or protocol in ways advantageous to him. If he can lie now and not face serious penalties, then a door opens onto an arena wherein he can generate a false narrative which would be accepted on faith by enough people to blur the perception between fact and fiction for people too busy or uninterested to sift through credible sources of information. The type of logic that can be exploited here is this: "I mean, if he's not getting into trouble, he has to be telling the truth, right?" The loss of individual rights will not occur overnight, but through a series of questionable pieces of legislation which will be ignored on presentation and then passed among the clangor of finger pointing, name calling, and bipartisan bickering complemented by the din of executive power controlling information by brute force and distracting its people through a barrage of tweets both captious and trivial.

You are not your party. You are not who you voted for. You are a human who wants to be happy and healthy, with rights and infrastructures in place to assist you in this endeavor. Please set aside any grudges as party members and turn your attention towards ensuring that the government knows that they are accountable to you, and that you will not give up that arrangement. Call your elected officials and let them know that you will not tolerate lies from the executive administration, and that, as taxpayers who fund their position, you expect them (your elected officials) to do their jobs and earn their keep through honest, sustainable work that puts citizen over party. In particular, it should be made clear that they should be willing and able to check the power of a president who is capable lying to his people.