And why I implore you to do the same.

I’ve been working on a longer piece about Trump for some time, as I’ve wrestled with my desire to put some thoughts on paper about our 45th President. I’m not a politician, and I’m not a practiced writer, though I do have some training and education in the art. I haven’t been politically motivated until more recently in life, when I feel that events have forced me to “pick a side” out of a sense of decency and human compassion. Even so, I’ve tried to vote in most local and national elections and have voted for a spectrum of candidates including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. I think the two-party system is poison for our nation and my sincerest hope is that we can move away from the dualistic thinking it represents to achieve compromise and come together. If you want to jump ahead, you can move down to the reasons that I won’t support Trump.

Ben Franklin’s 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon provided an image with staying power that helped the fledgling colonies unite through two wars: The French and Indian War, and later the Revolutionary War. Though the “other snake flag” has been more or less co-opted by the extreme right, I think this flag still has relevance power: we’re facing unprecedented polarization in a time of extreme climate change and threats to our democracy. We must find a way to have reasoned conversations about the threats we face and to come together to move past them. I believe Trump is such a threat that needs to be overcome.

Because of recent events, let me start by saying I have nothing but well-wishes for anyone suffering from COVID-19, but it’s hard not to feel a certain inevitability about the current infections of Trump, Conway, Johnson, and others given their hubris and disdain for the precautions most of us have doing our best to follow for months.

It’s also hard to know the truth in this moment, because this administration has habitually lied about… well, everything since the first day in office (remember “the biggest crowd?”).

So here it is: Trump is evil. Not “satanic” evil, but evil as the absence of things that are good: love, selflessness, sacrifice, humility, and other virtues noble and worthy of praise. He is a self-centered, narcissist sociopath that has been disappointingly enabled by people in power who should and do know better, but are instead prioritizing personal gain and the consolidation of power. My hope when Trump was elected was that some reasonable part of the Republican Party would reject him and break away — which could have helped end our inane and divisive two-party system — but that hope was misguided. Instead, many Republican leaders that take issue with Trump have quietly retired, slipped away, or even passed away (it’s important to note that there are some exceptions: I appreciate Evan McMullin, among others).

Many left in the party, and particularly those in Trump’s inner circle, have perpetuated falsehoods and lies that misinform and mislead the public, which have reinforced by the increasing polarization of our society. To be fair, the modern trend towards polarization isn’t new — look back to Newt Gingrich’s partisan speeches on the (usually empty) house floor in the 1990s, or review these excellent 2015 graphs that show how polarization has steadily increased for decades — but our leaders’ efforts to divide have been abetted by highly specific and editorialized news sources, and of course by social media algorithms that show us what we want to see, leading to the propagation of often inane conspiracy theories.

There is a great quote in new Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma” that runs something along the lines of “we don’t understand how the other side can think what they think seeing what we see… but in many cases they aren’t seeing what we’re seeing.” The quote suggests that many of us are given an alternative set of facts and information from which to work (which is why we should always source things from multiple different organizations when possible, but that’s an entire other article). As such, that’s my inspiration for this piece: if I can expose one piece of information, or by sharing my opinion, can help others reconsider, then I will gladly do it.

1. The COVID-19 response. The entire Administration has botched the response to COVID-19, prolonging and exacerbating our human and economic suffering. Mixed messages, a lack of clear leadership, stymieing agencies, and overriding self-serving interest have been the hallmarks of our response. Much more could, and has been, written on this topic along, so I’m going to move right along.

2. Racism. There are two groups that can certainly say they’re better off than they were four years ago: the uber-rich and white supremacists. Honestly, where to begin with Trump and race? If Trump was a fireman, he’d be hooking his hose up to a gas tanker “fight” this fire. He’s brought out the worst in our populace time and time again. Charlottesville (“very fine people”). George Floyd. Dispelling a group of protesters for a pandering, odd photo opportunity at a Church that didn’t want him. Proud Boys. Racehorse Theory. If you want good articles to read on these topics, I can send you a few, but the bottom line is we cannot look to Trump for any kind of leadership, healing, or unity. Oh, and speaking of the uber-rich (no, I am decidedly not talking about you, reader… I mean the uber rich)…

3. Climate: Where to begin on this topic? Of course we withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords — but even if we buy that the sentiment was because they were unfair to the U.S., we haven’t done anything to replace or make any effort to advance our care for this planet — and things are getting worse. Science is literally denied and stymied at every turn. America experienced a great environmental awakening in the 1960s and 1970s, thanks in large part to pioneers like Rachel Carson, among others. We stopped using DDT. We created the Endangered Species Act. We created the EPA and cleaned up our filthy rivers and waterways. And now, we’re undoing many protections. Like Scott Pruitt before him, Andrew Wheeler has spent months rolling back environmental and health protections, all in the interest of — you guessed it — big business. The administration has also tried to repeal the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Bad news folks: the planet doesn’t care if we’re “America First,” and these pro-business practices won’t leave much left for our children.

4. Immigration and the Southern Border: We continue to treat our southern neighbors as subhumans, keeping them caged in deplorable conditions, separating families, making detained kids take care of other kids, and potentially performing eugenics-style unapproved medical procedures. And, don’t forget the “build the wall!” chants — we’ve spent some money there, but parts of it will fail due to erosion, other parts have blown over in high winds, and research shows a wall/barrier many times isn’t even effective.

5. Taxes & Billionaire Wealth: At the start of the pandemic, people suggested that it was a great equalizer — that we were all in the same boat. While we might all be in the same storm, it’s clear that most Americans don’t even have a boat, while others are cruising in some high-falutin’ yachts. For example — during one three-month period of COVID, Jeff Bezos’s fortune grew by $43.7 billion, or 38.6% — and don’t forget, Amazon received federal tax refunds in excess of $100 million dollars in 2017 and 2018. Since 1978, CEO compensation has risen 940% while worker compensation has risen 12%. Inflation over that same period comes to about 300%. We are a country by and for the wealthy right now, not for the people.

6. Fiscal Irresponsibility. A traditionally held Republic position, and one that I personally ascribe to, is fiscal conservatism — not spending more than we bring in. But 2017 tax cuts (which again helped the super-rich), and now COVID-19, have sent the 2020 federal deficit to 17.9% of projected GDP — the average deficit over the last 50 years coming in at around 3%. It’s an alarming “pass the buck” system of government that is going to create many problems for future generations. Granted, most economists agree that we shouldn’t worry specifically about the deficit during the pandemic, but the pattern of growing deficits was already in place before COVID-19.

7. Our infrastructure is crumbling: We’ve done nothing for our country’s crumbling infrastructure, despite a $550 billion promise to do so. (Note: our infrastructure report card rating in 2017 was a D+).

8. We’ve failed to secure our elections: This one isn’t just on Trump — the Senate leadership can take a large share of blame here. At least 395 bills passed from the House to the Senate haven’t been passed, largely thanks to Mitch McConnell. There are arguments to be made on both sides here about bipartisanship and showmanship, but we can’t ignore the fact that at least 10 of those bills dealt with election security. Don’t forget there was widespread agreement from national security agencies that Russia had attempted interference in the 2016 election and would likely do so again.

9. Tax returns. Don’t let the COVID outbreak make you forget that just last week investigative reporting showed that Trump likely owes someone $421 million and that he’s paid next-to-nothing in income tax over several years. Sure, Winston Churchill was bad with money — but at his peak he was only in debt to the tune of around $4 million of today’s dollars, and even then people around him were so concerned about his indebtedness that private friends helped pay off his debt.

10. A lack of policy. There just isn’t any policy. For the 2020 GOP convention, the Republican party literally elected to just, well… not have a platform.

11. We almost started a war with Iran. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter actually banned US involvement in assassinations, but that didn’t stop this administration from nearly starting a war with Iran when it assassinated Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike. Soleimani is certainly a “bad dude,” but the administration has given him martyr status, and you can bet that Iran still wants to return the favor.

12. The Death Penalty: there have been more federal executions have been carried out in 2020 than in the past 57 years combined, and more are scheduled. Do some homework on the death penalty and you’ll find plenty of problems with lethal injection (John Oliver even did a wonderful long-form review of it last year). Sadly these federal executions take place here in my home state of Indiana.

13. Travel: Do you like to travel? Good luck with that — from 2015 to 2020, the U.S. passport has dropped in the rankings of most powerful passports — from number one to number seven, and that’s not even considering how it may slide with the further failure to contain COVID-19 in the USA.

14. Net Neutrality. Don’t forget that Net Neutrality was repealed in 2017–2018 by the FCC in another pro-business move. The reactions and fallout have been mixed, but there’s no doubt that this primarily benefits — once again — big business.

15. Belittling veterans: He belittles and disrespects our service veterans.

16. Lack of gun safety: COVID-19 seems to have suppressed school shootings — for now — but don’t forget that on a national level we’ve done absolutely nothing to make schools safer.

17. Refugees. Our refugee per annum caps have been set to historic lows.

18. Abandoning our allies. Don’t forget that we abandoned our Kurdish allies in Syria in 2019, creating a dangerous environment for them and weakening our standing throughout the world.

19. Abusing Interim Appointments and Destabilizing the Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is typically regarded as a bad word, but the systemic disruption of government agencies that make our country run has been disturbing over the past four years. Trump has repeatedly filled high-level jobs without Senate approval by appointing “acting” heads. He’s been sued and courts have begun to rule against this practice.

20. Trump is surrounded by criminals. It’s hard to keep track of how many people around Trump have been arrested for wrongdoing. Use the link the get a refresher, and remember that he also pardoned Roger Stone and continues to weaponize the Department of Justice.

21. Nepotism & Business Profiteering: Trump’s children and family members, even though mostly unsalaried, have attained highly influential positions in the national government. We can argue about Hunter Biden here, and sure — he certainly got his position because of his father. We all understand how that works. But Trump has flat out normalized nepotism. Jared Kushner, for some reason, leading the COVID task force. A friends and family RNC convention. I’m going to lump business profiteering in here, too — remember when the Trump Corp. was supposed to divest? That didn’t happen. Oh, and don’t forget the Secret Service resort bills.

22. He’s every bad boss you’ve ever had. I’m not sourcing this one, but Trump is every bad boss you’ve ever had. He passes the blame and takes the credit. He can never admit to being wrong. He cares little to nothing for the welfare of the employees.

23. Corporate Allowances: The Trump Administration has broadly reduced enforcement of corporate penalties — with at least a 72% drop in justice department corporate penalties between the Obama and Trump presidencies (as of a 2018, I could stand to find more recent data).

24. Peaceful transition. He won’t commit to a peaceful transition and regularly praises dictators. More should not need to be said.