Sing on, sing on.

i can fix this

President Obama is traveling to Wisconsin today to talk with Americans like Brent who were able to sign up for health coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The city of Milwaukee won the President’s Healthy Communities Challenge by signing up 89,000 people for health coverage.

Check out Brent’s letter to the President, and follow along today as President Obama visits Wisconsin:

To My President,

I sincerely hope that this reaches you, as far too often praise is hard to come by. Apologies to people who deserve it perhaps even less so.

I did not vote for you. Either time. I have voted Republican for the entirety of my life.

I proudly wore pins and planted banners displaying my Republican loyalty. I was very vocal in my opposition to you–particularly the ACA.

Before I briefly explain my story allow me to first say this: I am so very sorry. I understand written content cannot convey emotions very well–but my level of conviction has me in tears as I write this. I was so very wrong. So very very wrong.

You saved my life. I want that to sink into your ears and mind. My President, you saved my life, and I am eternally grateful.

I have a ‘pre-existing condition’ and so could never purchase health insurance. Only after the ACA came into being could I be covered. Put simply to not take up too much of your time if you are in fact taking the time to read this: I would not be alive without access to care I received due to your law.

So thank you from a dumb young man who thought he knew it all and who said things about you that he now regrets. Thank you for serving me even when I didn’t vote for you.

Thank you for being my President.

Honored to have lived under your leadership and guidance,

People write to me all the time telling me that X or Y question on here is just me being taken in by a “troll,” someone who’s just saying racist stuff to get a reaction, but who “doesn’t really believe it.” I think that’s a major component in what’s wrong with a lot of racists and people who enable them: they think that there’s some kind of magical need for intent to be part of the equation, that one can’t simply be judged on your actions, or the effects of your speech.

Whether or not Trump “believes” what he’s saying, he’s empowering racists with his speech, who now believe they have a voice and a place in this country. And this gives them the courage and the community to perpetrate their racist acts (just look how they acted only yesterday).

Moreover, think about how racist you have to be to believe that using racist rhetoric to appeal to racists is OK, like you can play with racism because it’s just another tactic. Racism is a threat, to groups of people, and to simply think that you can make this threat, hurt people, and benefit from it, and that that requires some kind of intent or active malice in your heart makes you a fucking awful person. They seem to think “I just don’t give a shit about my racist actions” is some kind of defense.

If you’re some idiot who thinks that Trump is just using the odious tool of racism to get votes, what about him makes you think that even if he doesn’t “believe” in it, he’ll act anything other than exactly as he’s been campaigning (relative weakness of the Presidency in our system aside). You think he’s not going to govern as a fucking racist, sexist bigot? Why wouldn’t he?