Yesterday, I sent you an email outlining the results from the survey of our entire supporter list about the crisis and surrounding issues. I also asked you to sign our letter to the President to let him know that Americans agree with him – that we must be able to get back to work in a way that balances the social-distancing guidelines and protects the most vulnerable. Despite the howls and attacks from the beltway-left every time President Trump even mentions trying to get Americans back to work, out in the real world, across the country, millions of our fellow Americans are jobless and don’t know what they’re going to do to care for their families.

Mark Levin said, “Americans can do two things at once.” He’s right, and today’s email summarizes what I feel are the good, the bad, and the ugly realities of our current situation – just not in that order. What follows are my personal thoughts and reasoning on why I support the President’s efforts to get America working again, and my plea to you join me in this fight.

I hope you agree and will sign onto the letter with me so that we can rally behind President Trump at this pivotal, make-or-break moment in our nation’s history.

The bad and the ugly.

I haven’t slept well for days now. I’ve heard from so many of you who are worried about the ability to flatten the curve, worried about our economy, your economic outlook, your freedom, stopping the virus, your future, and our country’s future.

I feel like we are all caught in the middle of a vicious game of tug of war. For me, on one side, I am gripped by fear that my parents may catch this virus and die from it. I worry about our supporters, many of whom are older Americans, and whether they are doing okay and staying healthy. I wonder how many new cases there are and whether the hospitals will have the ventilators they need in time to meet the surge in demand.

On the other side, I am worried about what happens next economically and the effect the crisis might have on my children. I worry about those of you who have reached out after being laid off, or laying off employees. I consider the legacy we will leave to our children with $24T+ in national debt, as well as the encroachment on our rights by so many governors and local elected officials around this country. I see the radical liberals who continue to talk about how COVID-19 is an opportunity to “restructure” America with their extreme, socialist ideas. Late at night, it feels like an either-or problem, and I feel caught in the middle. However, by the light of day, even though it seems like an either-or problem, I know there must be a solution that balances high-risk Americans and hospital capacity with reopening the economy so that people can find a way to work and provide for their families again.

One recent night, after tossing and turning for hours, I finally fell asleep only to wake up from a nightmare remembering the agony of personal financial crisis in 2007 as my then-husband’s business collapsed. I dreamed of the faces of the people he laid off – people who had worked for him for years – and could see the people who hugged him when they said good bye. Everyone had tears in their eyes. We put anything of value we owned in garage sales and on eBay to pay for utilities and take care of our twins, who were in preschool at the time. Eventually, we filed bankruptcy, lost our house and cars, turned down Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac money from one of the 2008 stimulus bills, and started over. There were days when we were not sure how we would put food on the table and a Christmas where friends made sure Santa visited our children.

Those were dark days in my life and they seem to haunt me right now because I know that too many of my fellow Americans are now experiencing the same hardship, and this is why I am so adamant that we find a way to get people back to work in a responsible manner – because I’ve been through the pain some of you are going through right now!

I am also extremely concerned with the small and medium-sized business owners across this country who are facing such impossible decisions right now. I have read the emails from some of you who are laying off employees. I know what you are enduring. You ask whether to pour what is left of your life savings into a business to try to keep it alive, lay people off, or take a forgivable loan from the government to keep your employees compensated. You wonder what will happen to your own homes, whether you, too, may join the ranks of the more than ten million unemployed Americans.

I can tell your thoughts are very much like mine in the middle of the night. Have you had similar nights recently? Do you ask how we balance the need to flatten the curve with the very real impacts of an American economy that is gasping for air? Are you thankful the President is Donald Trump during this crisis and not a radical left-wing politician with an extreme agenda? Are you concerned with the way the media is attacking President Trump each time he mentions Americans wanting to return to work? Do you wonder if they understand what will happen if our country enters a depression and if the cure truly winds up being worse than the disease? Are you worried what kind of legacy we will leave our children and grandchildren as we see the debt mount even further? Are you losing sleep questioning how you will continue to provide for your family in these uncertain economic times?

Here is some hard, scary truth: the US economic output has fallen to 29%. For some context, it was 26% during the Great Depression – just 3% less than now. We simply cannot allow this freefall to continue unabated. If it does, the “cure” will absolutely be worse than the disease.

The good and the hopeful.

However, after all that doom and gloom, let me now say to you that we should still have hope. There is a way to find a balance in slowing the spread and to have personal, religious, and economic freedom – we just need to shout it from the rooftops that Americans want to find that balance.

You see, no matter how bleak things may be in those dark hours of the night, in the morning, I focus on what motivates me to put two feet on the ground and face the day. Today you are my motivation. You love our country, our Constitution, and our freedom too much to stay in bed under covers worrying all day. You and I believe in the greatness of America, even when the going gets tough. You and I know with persistence, determination, and adherence to the Constitution, we will find our way through this time. 

Furthermore, we are truly lucky that it is President Trump in the White House rather than a President Hillary Clinton. President Trump loves our country, our Constitution, and our freedom. He loves America and her people, and is doing everything he possibly can to balance the tug-of-war that threatens to rip our nation apart. I can’t imagine the burden he bears every day – I don’t expect he gets much sleep right now either. Think about how this man has been attacked day-in and day-out with accusations of collusion leading to the Mueller investigation, then a sham impeachment, and now a pandemic where the media and the left are seemingly more concerned about politicizing it and using it to attack President Trump than finding constructive solutions to the crisis.

And yet, he has the stamina, the commitment, and the heart to see us through. He also has the wisdom we need. You can tell he wants so badly to reopen the economy as soon as possible, and while it would likely be in stages, it would be something. The media mocks and attacks him for even raising it as a topic for discussion! Honestly, it doesn’t surprise me that Marxists are A-Okay with shutting down our entire economy indefinitely.

President Trump and his administration’s rhetoric demonstrates that he understands, as he said, the cure cannot be worse than the disease. Larry Kudlow said, “The sooner we begin to reopen, the faster that snapback’s going to be. That's the rule of thumb that I think most economists would agree with. Again, as I've said, we came into this with a very strong economy. It got interrupted by the virus, if that's the right word, and if this can be stabilized fairly soon, yes, I do think we'll see a snapback. That may be more of a prayer than a hope, I understand that, but that's my view. I’m an optimist. I can't help it.”

Recently, Mark Levin said, “Americans can do two things at once.” We can maintain social distancing, keep those at high-risk safe, and get back to work so that we can continue to provide for our families.

It won’t be easy. A crisis by its very nature is not easy. It may very well take us reaching deep within ourselves to find the persistence and determination needed to take us from a state of fear and inaction to the activists Tea Party Patriots are known to be; to take us from sitting by wondering what we can do, to doing what we know must be done. This is not vacation from the Constitution time. It is the time to help President Trump stand for the Constitution and to let him know he is not alone when he says, “Americans want to work.”

In the Saturday briefing, President Trump mentioned several times the need to reopen the economy. He again said, “Americans want to work.” Our country is not designed to be shut down.

Right now, if you google phrases like “Trump reopen economy,” you’ll see pages and pages of awful, hateful articles. The press and the left savaged the President for merely saying “Americans want to work.” I believe they know the country cannot remain at a standstill for too long, and hope to use the resulting depression as a way to beat President Trump in November – our country and lives be damned. And so, they attack a very logical idea to put a plan together that would balance lives affected by the virus and lives affected by the shuttered economy. They can’t stand the thought of him getting America through this in one piece, and perhaps even stronger on the other side of it all.

So, we have to be the loud, vocal contingent that supports the President’s efforts to build a plan to get America back to work. You are part of the great grassroots movement that put Donald Trump in the White House, and we need to step up and show the media that Americans DO want to go back to work in whatever way we can, however creatively we need to do it so that we protect Americans against the virus at the same time.

Like Larry Kudlow said, the faster we reopen, the faster the snapback will be. All we are asking is that some time and effort be put into figuring out a plan that protects vulnerable Americans and our economy.

After all, it makes no sense to wait to develop the plan until the day before we get the okay head back to work. The time to formulate the plan is now. Just like we pushed back on the left’s impeachment narrative that was based on lies, we must now push back against their efforts to grind our economy into another depression. All across the country, leftists are salivating – publicly – about how this is the chance to remake America into their progressive utopia. I wager that nuking the economy and forcing tens of millions of Americans onto government programs would fit right into their plans for the country.

So, help me fight back. Help me show President Trump that AMERICA supports him and that he should press forward with plans to reopen the economy in a responsible way, as soon as possible. Sign the letter and share it with your friends! Thank you and God bless America!

In liberty,

Jenny Beth Martin