Dad, you and I talked the other night. You, a lifelong Republican who is still dedicated and me a lifelong Republican who ditched the party the moment Mr. Trump came down the escalator. 

There are few honors as deep as being heard. Thursday night you heard me. And, even after you listened to me for about an hour, I’ve got more to say. Do you mind? It’s just the evidence. I’m gonna provide a few links. And share my most important point, which astonishingly I didn’t previously share: the cultural impact of Mr. Trump.

So I’ll start with said cultural impact. While the abandonment of Ukraine and NATO is hard to top (especially for traditional Republicans) and while the attack on our electoral system is hard to top (for traditional Republicans, due to their love of freedom), the biggest threat from Mr. Trump is cultural. 

I used to think of the President of the United States as the lead policy guy. All that mattered was his position on this topic or that topic. Not so much his personal morality or, say, his effect on culture. I’ve since realized how deeply backwards that thinking is. I have David French to thank in part for this. Mr. French says his criteria for judging a political candidate is as follows – and the order of the items in this list matters, i.e. one trumps two and two trumps three – 1) morality 2) competency and 3) policy. He’s right. He’s dang right. In a democracy – which is code for “power sharing” – morality is essential. No morality is needed in an autocracy because no sharing is happening, only grabbing and taking; there all you need is guns, manipulation, and raw power. 

So I’ve slowly realized The President is not the lead policy guy. Instead he is our lead culture shaper (and only secondarily is he the lead policy guy). This is why people get so up in arms about who’s President. Unconsciously or semi-consciously we all know this. Cultural power – the ability to shape our fundamental values and preferences and beliefs, our very view of the world! – is the greatest power. This includes the power to normalize what has never been normal before. It is the power to shape us. 

This is ever more true with someone as charismatic as Mr. Trump. His personality is power. But – and this is a very big “but” – Mr. Trump is amoral. (I’m not even going to try to defend this point. I hope it is obvious to everyone.) Amorality is the natural state of a narcissist. Amorality obliterates morality. An amoral person is one who says morality doesn’t matter but instead power does. Evidence: Mr. Trump telling family and friends before the results of the 2020 election that it doesn’t matter if he lost or won, he still has to fight like hell. This proves he has no dedication to our electoral system and only has dedication to his own interests. To put it another way, what his fellow citizens want, demonstrated by their votes, is worthless compared to what he wants. In other words, power trumps morality. And, because he offers no defense for this kind of thinking, that is why I call him amoral. He doesn’t even try to be moral. He simply does what he wants. Further evidence: Paul Ryan, former Republican Speaker of the House describes him as an Authoritarian Narcissist (and not a political conservative). 

And yet further evidence, this from J.D. Vance himself. Within the last few years, Mr. Vance referred to Mr. Trump as “America’s Hitler”. While I try to be incredibly careful about ever using the “bomb” of calling someone “Hitler”, we get Mr. Vance’s point: Mr. Trump is no democrat (or Republican). Instead, he is Authoritarian. I appreciate Mr. Vance’s candor and am amazed at the transition that has occurred since his statement. Like the rest of the Republican party, he has sold his soul. 

As Liz Cheney points out, a political conservative is someone who first, foremost, last, and finally defends the constitution. But Mr. Trump has called for the termination of our constitution. No matter how much he may have sincerely believed he won the 2020 election (and he didn’t sincerely believe that – he told Mike Pence “you’re too honest”), a human deserving of the Presidency and of calling himself a political conservative wouldn’t even be able to dream of terminating the constitution, let alone say it. Yet he had no trouble making this politically horrific statement. He’s no political conservative. 

Mr. Trump has suggested our nation’s highest military leader should be executed. What? What?! What universe am I living in? Russia? Maybe we all moved to Russia and I just found out. Nobody should be executed until they’ve been tried and found guilty! We have a criminal justice system! Why hasn’t Mr. Trump submitted evidence so that General Mark Milley can appropriately be tried in court? Mr. Trump demonstrates no faith in or joy over our system; instead he ignores it, does what he wants, sets an example of disregarding our system, and brings darkness on us all. Wouldn’t a good leader… praise our nation’s highest military leader? Why is he using violent language at all?! Execution?! As the most visible person in our nation, people watch him and he has been modeling violence for a long (and unacceptable) time. 

So, where is this going? What’s it matter if the President’s role is felt most supremely in its cultural effect? Mr. Trump is sick. Fundamentally sick, amoral, underdeveloped, authoritarian, not politically conservative (refer to Paul Ryan and J.D. Vance), and not American (refer to Mr. Trump’s words about fighting like hell if he lost an election and J.D. Vance). Here’s the deal: sicknesses spread. Exhibit A: Mark Robbinson. Exhibit B: Kari Lake. Exhibit C: Marjorie Taylor Greene. Any democratic party would be embarrassed to have these people in their party, and yet the Republicans have attracted all of these people. Exhibit D and the Most Important Exhibit: Republican leadership at the federal level. What happens when they are asked: Did Mr. Trump lose the 2020 election? They repeatedly refuse to answer the question. You know what? If Mr. Trump fraudulently lost the election, meaning he actually won but significant fraud occurred, then every Republican answering this question should pounce on the question with a “no” followed by a “let me tell you why”. Why don’t they do that? There is no one who should want this question more than they! If they know of a crime so serious, there is nothing more important than airing that knowledge! Tell us! You are being asked! Just tell us! The fact is Mr. Trump fairly lost that election – which he has stated – so the only explanation for these Republican leaders refusals to say “yes he lost” or “no and here’s why” is that Mr. Trump’s sickness has corrupted the Republican party so badly that its leaders feel the need to lie for Mr. Trump. Sick deference to a sick leader. 

But even more sinister than corrupting a major political party is the effects on the American people. Only once in recent memory did American citizens attack the capital. I am unable to  believe those people would have attacked if Mr. Trump had not said “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”. In fact, we know this was their reasoning because, in court case after court case, they have said so; they were fighting at the capital because the election was stolen from Mr. Trump. And Mr. Trump fully validates their view: he has said the people fighting at the capital were doing so because they believed the election had been stolen from him. Why did they believe that? Mr. Trump was the only leading politician making this claim. His sickness is spreading. “Just lie and you can create reality” appears to be his assumption. This is narcissism. This is authoritarianism. This is reality by fiat. This is sickness, spreading. 

Asians and Africans (and others) are “poisoning the blood of America”. This is the sickest phrase I’ve heard from any politician in living memory. I had defended Mr. Trump against charges of racism before he said this. But this statement, which he has made zero apology for, is indefensible. And it is sick. And his sickness is spreading. In Florida, there are pictures of citizens waving Trump flags directly next to their Nazi swastika flags. You want to know which party doesn’t have a single one of its flags waving next to Nazy flags? The Democratic party! Why? Harris has never made an overtly racist statement. In terms of the “culture war” (i.e. our values), Harris is an angel and Trump is a demon. 

The only reason that “pussey” is now part of the national conversation is that Mr. Trump bragged that he could do whatever he wanted to women such as grab their “pussey”. Do I need to say anything more? Is this not horrific enough? We now have to explain this word to children, and Mr. Trump’s behavior surely emboldens people who have not yet been able to or chosen to appropriately manage their sexuality. Here are just two testimonials from the twenty six women who have accused him of sexual assault. Given he has bragged about his ability to assault women, we have cause for believing that most or all of these twenty six women are telling the truth. 

“I will be your protector”. Why does he think this statement to women is believable? 

When I look at Mr. Trump, I see a man who is so narcissistic that the insult of telling me an overt lie – one which can be disproven in under five minutes – doesn’t register as a bad idea in his head. It’s a horrible idea! If he wants my trust, he can not insult me to my face! But, he has, repeatedly. One example is the size of the crowd at his inauguration speech. There were pictures! Why, oh why, did he think we would believe his words over pictures! Not only are these overt lies insulting, but they prove he thinks we’re stupid. He did the same thing recently with Kamala’s crowd size when she got off a plane. (He’s really got a thing with crowd sizes. Maybe someone should give him some virtual reality goggles filled with adoring crowds and he’ll happily wander off and leave us alone forever?) There were hundreds of people there, cheering. They had their phones out. (So guess how many photos from a wide number of sources were available to prove the crowd size?) Yet Mr. Trump goes on to sincerely say that that crowd was AI generated. If there was only one photo of the group this could be possible. But there were hundreds! He insults us and assumes we are stupid. Only narcissism can produce this sort of deranged behavior. 

The group of people he lies to the most are his own followers. I understand him to be an abused man, so I have some compassion. One of his biographers describes Mr. Trump’s father as a “monster”. Abused people frequently go on to abuse others. As a cultural leader, Mr. Trump is doing exactly that.  

During Mr. Trump’s Porn Actress Election Interference court case, the clerk of that court received the equivalent of two hundred and seventy five pages of threats. Why? Mr. Trump hopped on social media, shared this clerk’s name, said (I believe) some damning, untrue things, and her life was turned upside down. She was receiving emails, phone calls, etc filled with threats. What kind of man inspires threats?! What kind of man picks on the weakest member of a group (the clerk! – why didn’t he pick the judge?!). A weak man. And look what he’s inspired in his followers: threats, hatred, words of violence. That clerk’s life was torn apart for a while because America’s greatest leader, well, wasn’t very great. He’s spreading his sickness. A good leader would say “let’s do this court case, so I can prove my innocence to everyone” and would not choose to bully the weakest (and possibly most innocent) person in the room. My point is his sickness inspired 275 pages of sickness. It’s spreading. 

People in my own country now believe an election was stolen when the highest, most knowledgeable person in our country who was specifically hired to oversee the election and who was appointed by Republicans, CISA director Christopher Krebs, said this was the “most secure and fair election in history”. He made this official statement in conjunction with a hoard of other American government agencies (refer to previous link). He lost his job over this. He knew he was going to. He did it anyway. People in my own country now believe an election was stolen – and that probably the next will be too! – despite 60 courts unanimously saying that no evidence was provided to justify the claim that the election was stolen. So Mr. Trump’s sickness has spread to the country in a way in which the sickness will keep on metastasizing: our people now doubt our very courts! Our people now doubt our very elections! Doubting the things that give you your freedoms means beginning to lose your freedoms. This sickness, manifesting in this way, undermines our very democracy. 

And I kinda like democracy. 

Almost the most damning thing I can say about this man is that the people who know him best have publicly stated “don’t vote for him”. These are our nation’s highest leaders who worked directly with Mr. Trump; in other words, no one would know better than they. Some are his aids. Mr. Trump’s right-hand men who have publicly stated they do not endorse Mr. Trump for President include two Defense Secretaries, a National Security Advisor, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the United State’s highest ranking military officer), oh, and you know, his former VP Mike Pence who almost got killed. Does this seem normal? Or even ok? Also his longest-serving Chief of Staff, who refuses to officially endorse any candidate, says Mr. Trump is a fascist. Look, if I went to a new job, and they interviewed my former colleagues – the ones who directly worked with me – and nearly all of them said “she’s terrible”, you think I’d get the job? Then why are we considering this for the most important job on the planet?!

What has become even more sinister is his recent, repeated claims that the “enemy within” is greater than the enemy without. Let’s be clear. After nearly a decade of him filling the American people’s hearts with fear and horror about the “murderers and rapists” coming across the border, he now says the “enemy within” is worse than that?! There is something worse than the worst thing he has ever talked about? Yes. And he names who they are: the political left. He names Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi and many others and will use the United States military against them as needed. If this is not Authoritarianism, I don’t know what is. This is also manipulation: I scare the living daylights out of you, then I tell you “only I can rescue you”. This is gaslighting. First scary immigrants, now the scary left. Let’s be very clear about one thing: Mr. Trump was the left for eight years! He was a registered Democrat until 2009. Does he really have a problem with the left? Or is he simply an Authoritarian who wants to jail anyone who disagrees with him? He has talked repeatedly of wanting to silence talk show hosts. Can I just say that’s petty? Why does he care about folks with little to no real power? Although not being able to handle criticism is a common trait of Authoritarians. (Finally, I should mention he always conveniently leaves out that crime is lower among immigrants than it is among our citizens. But it’s hard to scare folks with that truth.)

He has called for a military tribunal for Liz Cheney! All I have to say is if she gets jailed I want to be jailed too. She is a hero who has sacrificed her career to fight the corruption within the Republican Party. We don’t jail folks without going through a court case first! And before that you must have evidence! Liz Cheney is fully within her rights as an American citizen to voice her views. Mr. Trump doesn’t seem to know that, or more likely he doesn’t care. 

Mr. Trump has suggested our nation’s leading military general should be executed and has repeatedly called for prosecution of his political opponents including using the military against them. THIS is authoritarianism. And even if he is not re-elected, or if he is re-elected and he never gets to realize his darker dreams, his calls for violence (execution, death) and using the military against the American people (more violence) must surely affect the American people. His sickness will continue to spread; he is normalizing violence. 

Mr. Trump’s cultural influence is my greatest concern. He has a dark view of reality, is convinced everyone cheats all the time, in response he feels justified to cheat all the time, believes everything is rigged, its dog-eat-dog, has a dislike for democracy, and an unending love for himself. Evidence of his self-love: 1) manipulating a foreign power, Ukraine, to help him get reelected (this triggered his first impeachment) and 2) getting Republicans to vote down a carefully crafted bi-partisan Border bill heavily championed by Mitch McConnel which would have done what he has said he wanted for years. But Mr. Biden was President at the time so Biden would have gotten the credit! It appears Mr. Trump cares more for himself than he does the American people he “serves”.

By virtue of who he is, he will call more people into political power who are like himself and he will continue corrupting the Republican party. Liz Cheney here speaks from her global experience about how quickly a democracy can devolve. My greatest long-term fear is that he will return to power, will have some success, and the Democratic party in its frustration will begin to think that it must fight fire with fire, i.e. it must become corrupt in order to successfully compete with the corrupt Republican party. He is not only making both the Republican party darker (and kicking out Romney and McCain Republicans) but he is making the entire country darker (inspiring bomb threats in Springfield Ohio because of his false claims that Haitian migrant workers are eating pets, saying that Asians and Africans poison the blood of America, etc).

Voting this November is easy. Cultural changes which pit us against each other (“some groups” are “poisoning the blood of America”, the military should be used against American citizens whom Mr. Trump disagrees with) and away from our usual allies (Ukraine and NATO), and which threaten democracy (inspiring unfounded doubt in our electoral system and in our court system), means any political candidate which doesn’t do these things is better. Harris doesn’t do these things. She has my vote. I call on all Republicans to put Country over Party, as Republican Adam Kinzinger does here.  

Sweet Papa, I know this was long, but I just want to close with this: I will cry for weeks if Mr. Trump is elected. His values are the opposite of mine. I believe in a good world, not a dark world. He is bringing darkness and I abhor the idea of living inside his dark world. I believe I will have children someday, and I want them to live in a world of hope and democracy, one in which no matter what they believe politically, the President will not use violent force against them and in which peaceful transfers of power are once again normalized. Oh, and one in which the Constitution is still revered and political violence is denormalized. 

That’s all. That’s what I want.

I love you.