Orange Man Bad

A final election thought.

Ahead of the election, here's something about Donald Trump that I've tried to say a few times, but don't think I've ever really got quite right. Maybe I'll pull it off this time.

The reason I have not and will never vote for Trump is pretty simple: He's a bad person. This, to me, is both obvious and not controversial. When I start giving examples of why he's a bad person, I can feel my voice getting louder and my tone getting shriller, like one of those unhinged cable news libs. I understand why that can be annoying for Trump supporters, but it doesn't mean I'm wrong. He's just a horrible guy. Orange man bad!

To highlight just one example, Donald Trump has sexually assaulted women. That's not my opinion. That's the finding of a jury of Trump's peers, a jury that included Republicans and Democrats. And, of course, that's just one time where it was proved in court. He's been accused of sexually assaulting many women, many times. The latest accusation came last week. He's bragged about doing it. It's not a secret. It's not fake news. We all know it happened. I think that's morally revolting and, at bare minimum, disqualifying for the presidency. Sexual assault is bad and people who do it are bad and they shouldn't hold political office.

But here's the thing. I don't need to convince you, the person reading this, of that. You agree that sexual assault is bad. But if you support Trump, then you don't think sexual assault is all THAT bad. At least, you don't think it's disqualifying for the presidency. And that being the case, you and I just don't have a lot to talk about politically. We’re not speaking the same moral language. There really isn't anything I can say that is going to convince you not to vote for Trump if you don't think sexual assault is disqualifying.

That's just one example. There are lots more. For another example, I think trying overthrow the election was bad and that people who try to overthrow democratic elections shouldn't be president. That seems pretty obvious to me. But if you don't think that's disqualifying for a Presidential candidate, then, again, there's nothing I can say that's going to change your mind. I can keep screaming "Presidents shouldn't try to overthrow the election!" all day long, but if you don't think it's disqualifying, then me pointing it out isn't going to change your mind. The problem isn’t that you don’t know it. The problem is that you don’t think it’s a big deal.

Same with threatening his political opponents or withholding disaster relief funds to states that didn't support him or praising Nazi generals or attacking Haitian immigrants, Mexican immigrants, all immigrants, everyone, or cheating small business owners or threatening journalists or palling around with Epstein, with Putin, with whoever, or the 34 criminal convictions, or, or, or blah blah blah. This is all well-known stuff. And if you still support him after all that, I guess that means you don't care about it very much. I'm not trying to be mean or dismissive here. "I don't care" just seems like the only honest response from someone who supports Trump at this point.

And what am going to do about that? I can't make you care about something. You either think criminal sexual assaulters shouldn’t be president or you don't. I’m not trying to “shut down conversation” or anything. I’m just highlighting why I think nearly ten years of conversation about all this hasn’t really moved the needle. What is there to discuss?

I've lived most of my professional life under the assumption that reasonable communication can bring us together despite our differences. I still believe that is true, at the deepest and truest parts of who we are. But when it comes to morality's role at the center of civic life, it does seem like we're at an impasse.

Trump supporters sometimes accuse people like me of not having any real politics besides “orange man bad.” I don’t agree with that but I’ll grant that none of my political beliefs have room for someone like Donald Trump in charge. It has plenty of room for his supporters, and includes a lot of things that I think would make their lives better. But in this present moment, “orange man bad” does have an important place in my political praxis. Not because I don’t like his supporters or because I think they’re all garbage or whatever. But because the world I want to help build — the world I want kids and the elderly and the poor and immigrants and Trump supporters and Jewish people and trans kids and Palestinians and all of us to grow up in — is not going to be built by a guy like Donald Trump.

And, I don’t know. I just think that’s pretty obvious.

Just had to get that out there.