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We are not just a nation divided.
We are also a nation of divided families.
I want to tell you the story of one such family -- about a man who did the most radical thing any of us can do: admit we were wrong and change our mind.
Gather 'round. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
We are also a nation of divided families.
I want to tell you the story of one such family -- about a man who did the most radical thing any of us can do: admit we were wrong and change our mind.
Gather 'round. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
A few weeks ago, in a suburb in southern California, an 87-year-old veteran named Don asked his daughter, Kathy, if he had gotten any mail. She checked on things like that for him.
She knew what his question was about. But no: the ballot hadn’t arrived.
She knew what his question was about. But no: the ballot hadn’t arrived.
Her father had good reasons for impatience.
Politics had always been important to him. But this year his vote mattered more than in the past -- and this year, its timing was especially complicated. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Politics had always been important to him. But this year his vote mattered more than in the past -- and this year, its timing was especially complicated. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
When Kathy was growing up, her father, Don, was a moderate Republican who loved a good debate around the dinner table.
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Like all children, when Kathy eventually left home, she copy-and-pasted some of that inheritance and simply cut other parts of it.
She broke with him by becoming a Democrat, but she retained his love of open discussion. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
She broke with him by becoming a Democrat, but she retained his love of open discussion. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Two decades ago, Don was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
It began to "to ravage his body and his brain."
And it had a further consequence: Don began to spend ever more time online, getting into a netherworld of conspiracy theories and disinformational email forwards.
It began to "to ravage his body and his brain."
And it had a further consequence: Don began to spend ever more time online, getting into a netherworld of conspiracy theories and disinformational email forwards.
Kathy was watching happen to her father what was happening writ large to the Republican Party. It was becoming a cult based on disinformation and the stripping of voters' sense of reality. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Like you, perhaps, Don knew online wasn’t the best for him, but he wasn’t going offline.
It was one of the last things a once-vigorous man, who had played fast-pitch baseball until his mid-seventies, had going on. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
It was one of the last things a once-vigorous man, who had played fast-pitch baseball until his mid-seventies, had going on. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
This detail stuck with me -- and I've heard it from other families. It wasn't just political delusion gripping Don. He also was conned into buying a time share that made no sense for him.
The Republican Party is a grift within an ecosystem of grifting. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
The Republican Party is a grift within an ecosystem of grifting. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
It will not surprise you that Don voted for the Donald when he swashbuckled onto the scene in 2016.
With Don's sense of reality ever more tenuous, he was an easy mark.
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
With Don's sense of reality ever more tenuous, he was an easy mark.
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Some things about Trump he didn't see; some he chose not to see; some he explained away by saying all the bums in politics were like that, were flawed.
Donald Trump won an uncountable number of voters whose very sense of real and fake had been stolen. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Donald Trump won an uncountable number of voters whose very sense of real and fake had been stolen. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Parkinson's had contributed to this problem. And now Parkinson's intervened in the story again. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Around the time of Trump’s election, Don’s facility with the computer began to decline. He would press the keys too long, writing three Js where he meant to write one, and he began to repeatedly lock himself out of his own accounts.
Soon he was spending less time online.
Soon he was spending less time online.
And this was the amazing thing Kathy noticed:
As soon as you unplug someone from the day-long IV of untruth, as soon as you stop pumping their mind full of those drugs, they stop being high.
Her father began to revert back. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
As soon as you unplug someone from the day-long IV of untruth, as soon as you stop pumping their mind full of those drugs, they stop being high.
Her father began to revert back. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
The email forwards fell out of his life. Don stopped watching Fox News. And, while we often tell ourselves the story that "nothing can change these people," he quickly changed.
He soured on Trump in the first year of his presidency. He took seriously his grandchildren's views.
He soured on Trump in the first year of his presidency. He took seriously his grandchildren's views.
Don was especially angered by Trump's contempt for troops and veterans. He had been a fighter pilot for the Air Force. He saw himself in John McCain. He hated Trump's treatment of him. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Then 2020 rolled around.
Kathy wondered what her father was going to do.
Vote for Joe Biden, he said.
“He said he was a stand-up, honorable man,” Kathy explained. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Kathy wondered what her father was going to do.
Vote for Joe Biden, he said.
“He said he was a stand-up, honorable man,” Kathy explained. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
As the election neared, Don awaited a mail-in ballot. He asked Kathy about it. It wasn’t yet there.
As I said, he had reasons for his impatience. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
As I said, he had reasons for his impatience. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Many people, for many reasons, are eager to vote right now, and eager for their ballots to arrive or polling sites to open.
But Don had special urgency in asking after his form.
For in addition to deciding to end his allegiance to Trump, Don had decided to end his own life.
But Don had special urgency in asking after his form.
For in addition to deciding to end his allegiance to Trump, Don had decided to end his own life.
He was 87. The disease was advanced and debilitating.
He learned about a California law called the End of Life Option Act.
"I want to do it," he said.
(Kathy told me: “He was very desirous to end his life with the same vigor and grit that he lived.”) https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
He learned about a California law called the End of Life Option Act.
"I want to do it," he said.
(Kathy told me: “He was very desirous to end his life with the same vigor and grit that he lived.”) https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
In order to be cleared for assisted death, he had to take a cognitive test.
It amused Don that it was pretty similar to the one Trump famously took -- "person, woman, man, camera, TV." https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
It amused Don that it was pretty similar to the one Trump famously took -- "person, woman, man, camera, TV." https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
So he waited for the day of his chosen death via a cocktail he was required by law to hold and sip by himself. And he waited for his ballot, so he could vote against Donald Trump, for Joe Biden, and for anyone not a Republican for the very first time. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
This is how he spent the last days, surrounded by family members who had once been aghast at his political drift but had loved him enough to stick with him and seek to change his mind.
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
On September 30, it was time. Don sipped the cocktail and, for the final time, piloted himself off the surface of the earth and flew west.
But he still needs your help to make one last wish come true. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
But he still needs your help to make one last wish come true. https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
Read the full piece at The Ink, and subscribe for future pieces, and VOTE! https://the.ink/p/why-don-quit-donald
