For once in the history of this website I'm going to write about politics. I think that the exception is pertinent. See, I'm going to ask those of you who can vote in November, and who care about facts and truth, about fairness and kindness, to send Trump and everything he represents to oblivion. Please feel free to stop reading now.
As a former nerdy, fat kid who became a nerdy, fat adult, there are four kinds of people I've always despised: bullies, assholes, jerks, and free riders. I hate people who take advantage of others, or abuse them, particularly those who brag about it. I have a strong emotional response whenever I hear or face people like that. They make me sick.
Well, for the first time in my life, I've witnessed a person who fits the academic definitions of a bully, an asshole, a jerk, and a free rider, all at once. Trump strikes me as the perfect sociopath.
You may think that I'm being unfair to the man, that I'm being hyperbolic, or that this is an unreasonable rant. Not true. Please inform yourself. There's plenty to choose from, but I'd begin with this book by a respected investigative reporter, and with this well argued take down by Sam Harris. I've read plenty about Trump from a wide range of credible sources, both conservative and liberal. Unlike you, Trump fan, I don't stay inside a comfortable ideological media cocoon. None of those sources, to the right or to the left, casts a positive light on this fellow. Not a single one. Even Fox News's support is quite tepid, if you ignore Sean Hannity, who doesn't qualify as a “credible” source by any standard.
Allow me to be blunt: If you helped Trump became the Republican nominee over some much more qualified candidates, you should —or will— be ashamed. Your kids will call you out on it in the future. But you have time to redeem yourself.
If you vote for this imbecile in November, you'll be explicitly endorsing racism, bigotry, and misogyny, besides proving that you don't give a damn about facts. You'll be complicit in giving the nuclear codes to a tantrum-prone ignoramus who has the self-control of an immature chimpanzee, the attention span of a goldfish, and whose knowledge of the world is reduced to what he sees in cable news and hears in radio talk shows. Please consider voting for his opponent or, if you really, really don't like her, have the decency of abstaining.*
(*This recommendation is for Trump supporters. If you endorsed Sanders, the logical thing to do is to vote for Clinton.)
