Never in my lifetime has this country been so terrifying, so ugly, so very obtuse. No matter who wins November 8, we all lose.
One candidate because he’s a dangerous megalomaniac who built his campaign on a foundation of hate and refuses to comply with election results.
The other because she’s lost in the shadow of a pseudo-scandal that most people fail to comprehend (and frankly don’t even bother to try).
If he wins, we have failed as a nation. Because it means we're uglier than he is, and there will be no turning back.
If she wins, his opponent has already laid the foundation for civil unrest. His followers have quite literally threatened the election with their muskets.
And make no mistake: they have much more sophisticated guns than that.
I feel sad. Disgusted. Battered. Torn. This should be a time to excite, not a time to incite, but what started with Trump encouraging his supporters to punch protesters has turned into an all-out call to arms.
To say we’re entering into dangerous territory is to deny the obvious: that it has been dangerous for months, and grown increasingly so as more and more once-rational people turned a blind eye to serious indiscretions as they pieced together a weak case for voting for Trump.
"He doesn't mean what he says," they say. "You're taking it out of context," they say (even when faced with the context in its entirety). And to that I say: he has shown us, repeatedly, the kind of man he is. Which is to say: not a kind man at all.
He was a known misogynist and racist well before this election even began. And yet you rallied behind him.
He threatened to have his opponent killed. Then imprisoned. And then admitted he might not accept election results unless he wins. He flip-flopped. He contradicted himself.
He has threatened to restrict freedom of the press – and accused the media of outright lies – despite all audio and videotape evidence to the contrary. And his numbers rose.
This thrice-married man with very public infidelities was caught on camera ADMITTING to being a sexual predator – and yet when women stepped forward to say, “Yes, it’s true, he did that to me,” it was as if you’d already forgotten how he lewdly bragged about grabbing women without their permission.
He’s promised to make America great again, but has yet to tell us what that means. What era will we return to? The one before women could vote? The one where black people had to sit in the back of the bus? Or will we roll back the clock to the 90s, an era without war but with ample financial stability – and our first President Clinton?
Because Trump has very publicly praised Bill Clinton’s presidency. There’s video evidence to prove it. Don’t believe me? Click that previous link. Still won’t believe me? Then you’re why we’re in this mess.
This is very dangerous territory, indeed. But it’s been that way for a while. We just feel it now more so than ever, with the election a few days away as we face the very real prospect of a very surreal future.
Is Hillary my first choice? No. Does Hillary have skeletons? Yep. Does she have some people donating to the Clinton Foundation that give me pause? Yes. But the same could be said tenfold for Trump and his foundation. But one key difference people keep forgetting: the Clinton Foundation has actually done some good in the world. Trump used his foundation to buy portraits of himself.
That’s telling. And if you don’t understand why – if you don’t understand just how dangerous it is to grant power to an egomaniac who has repeatedly demonstrated a quick temper but slow wit – then you haven’t read your history books.
For the rest of us, the future is unsettling. Because no matter who wins, we all lose.
Trump has already made sure of that.