Aaron Sorkin's Letter After Trump's Election in 2016
There are still 34 days left until the election. Don’t look back and wonder what you could have done. We are close to winning (or losing), and yes, it’s shocking, demoralizing and terrifying that it’s a close race, but too bad.
Action Items: Make sure every single person you know is a confirmed registered voter. They have stripped voter registration in a number of states. We must make sure we can vote.
Vote early if you can. Ask everyone you know to vote early.
Volunteer to be a poll watcher, and/or vote counter, especially in the swing states.
Put out good thoughts. Talk positively to people. Get up, do one thing each day to make sure democracy stands when the smoke clears on November 5, 2024.
Aaron Sorkin is one of the great film and television writers of our time. Here is the letter he wrote to his daughter the day after the election in 2016. It will inspire you.
From: Aaron Sorkin
Date: November 9, 2016 at 7:26:11 AM EST
To: Julia Sorkin
Cc: Roxy Sorkin
Sorkin Girls,
Well the world changed late last night in a way I couldn’t protect us from. That’s a terrible feeling for a father. I won’t sugarcoat it—this is truly terrible. It’s hardly the first time my candidate didn’t win (in fact it’s the sixth time) but it is the first time that a thoroughly incompetent pig with dangerous ideas, a serious psychiatric disorder, no knowledge of the world and no curiosity to learn has.
And it wasn’t just Donald Trump who won last night—it was his supporters too. The Klan won last night. White nationalists. Sexists, racists and buffoons. Angry young white men who think rap music and Cinco de Mayo are a threat to their way of life (or are the reason for their way of life) have been given cause to celebrate. Men who have no right to call themselves that and who think that women who aspire to more than looking hot are shrill, ugly, and otherwise worthy of our scorn rather than our admiration struck a blow for misogynistic shitheads everywhere. Hate was given hope. Abject dumbness was glamorized as being "the fresh voice of an outsider”. For the next four years, the President of the United States, the same office held by Washington and Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK and Barack Obama, will be held by a man-boy who’ll spend his hours exacting Twitter vengeance against all who criticize him (and the numbers will be legion.) We’ve embarrassed ourselves in front of our children and the world.
And the world took no time to react. The stock market dropped 7000 points overnight. Economists are predicting a deep and prolonged recession. Our NATO allies are in a state of legitimate fear. And speaking of fear, Muslim-Americans, Mexican-Americans and African-Americans are shaking in their shoes. And we’d be right to note that many of Donald Trump’s fans are not fans of Jews. On the other hand, there’s a party going on at ISIS headquarters. What wouldn’t we give to trade him for Richard Nixon right now?
So what do we do?
First of all, we remember that we’re not alone. A hundred million people in America and a billion more around the world feel exactly the same way we do.
Second, we get out of bed. The Trumpsters want to see people like us (Jewish, West coast, “elites”, educated, socially progressive, Hollywood…) sobbing and wailing and talking about moving to Canada. I won’t give them that and neither will you. Here’s what we’ll do…
…we’ll fucking fight. (Roxy, there’s a time for this kind of language and we’ve landed there.) We’re not powerless and we’re not voiceless. We don’t have majorities in the House or Senate but we do have representatives there. It’s also good to remember that most members of Trump's own party feel exactly the same way about him that we do. We make sure that the people we sent to Washington—including Kamala Harris—take our anger with them and and never take a day off.
We get involved. We do what we can to fight injustice anywhere we see it—whether it’s writing a check or rolling up our sleeves. Our family is fairly insulated from the effects of a Trump presidency so we fight for the families that aren’t. We fight for a woman to keep her right to choose. We fight for the First Amendment and we fight mostly for equality—not for a guarantee of equal outcomes but equal opportunities. We stand up.
America didn’t stop being America last night and we didn’t stop being Americans and here’s the thing about Americans: Our darkest days have always—always—been followed by our finest hours.
Roxy, I know my predictions have let you down but personally, I don’t think this guy can make it a year without committing an impeachable crime but if he does manage to be a douche nozzle without breaking the law for four years, we’ll make it through those four years. And three years from now we’ll fight like hell for our candidate and we’ll win and they’ll lose and this time they’ll lose for good. Roxy, it’ll be your first vote.
The battle isn’t over, it’s just begun. I will not hand my daughter a country shaped by hateful and stupid men.
Love,
Dad