A sincere and heartfelt congratulations to all my MAGA friends.

You have the stage, you are writing the script. Let’s see what you do with it.

You can drive a populist agenda of finally forcing government and American oligarchies to pay attention to the unfair treatment of the bottom economic 40% of the society, who since 1972 have been systemically removed from benefiting from the monetization of their labor. You can work on UBI, and wealth distribution, and entrenched corrupt power.

But you’re swimming in gasoline with that torch you’re carrying. It’s only a slight turn and your populism will erase the American global goodwill and sense of justice that we accrued in WW2, that drove civil rights, that we recovered only slowly after Vietnam. You can turn from championing the unheard and throwing out corruption, to cruelty, xenophobia, and the Triumph of the Willingness to Get Away With Everything.

If you’re gonna swim with a torch in gasoline, you gotta hold your head high, always.

I empathize with your resentments and admire your aspirations for a country controlled by the people, that makes you proud. I fear that the man you are carrying water for doesn’t actually care about any of that, that you made a champion out of a charicature of your vision. I can hardly blame you for that, given the inexcusable failure of Democrats to speak to what rightfully matters to you, with a champion who makes you feel trust, who brings you to your feet with their charisma, competence, vision, and, above all, who sees you and you see their seeing you in them.

Here are the keys. Please bring the car back washed, refueled, and better than you got it. And along the way, drive us all to somewhere great.