I hate Donald Trump. It is not enough to say I disagree with him, or that I do not respect him as a leader or even as a man. I hate him.
I do not say that lightly. As I have gotten older, I try very hard to avoid using the word “hate,” because it is overused to the point of being nearly meaningless. It also never has a positive influence on a course of events. That’s part of what my problem is with the political tide that has brought him to power. Hate is not something I want to teach my children to embrace. I am well aware of Dr. King’s philosophy that hate cannot drive out hate, that only love can. I agree.
That said, I reiterate that I hate Donald Trump. I do not just hate what he stands for (today). I do not hate most of the people who voted for him. It is not worth belaboring the point with specifics, but I hate him as a person for what he does and the way he treats people. I’m human. I cannot help the way I feel, and I cannot say that I am proud of hating anybody, but I can help the way I respond to it.
So, when I say “I hate Donald Trump,” do not mistake what that means. It does not mean that I am going to throw a temper tantrum about him being in power. It does not mean that I intend, or want anybody else to use violence, coercion, intimidation or any other illegal, immoral or uncivilized tactic to protest or fight him. In fact, those are some of the actions that he has supported or encouraged within his own supporters that are part of why I hate the man. I have no intent to beat a monster by becoming one myself.
It must, as always, be love, truth and justice with which we fight the monster that is Donald Trump. I do not know if we can defeat the monster that way, at least not in the foreseeable future. I do know that using anything but love, truth and justice to fight him, fighting him on his own terms with his own tactics will destroy the part of America that is worth fighting to protect. This country is too important, and has been too good to me for me to contribute to its further disassociation with reality, practicality and basic civility.
I do not recognize a country shaped by his warped way of thinking as anything approaching the America I love. It is that love that is most of my fuel. I hate Donald Trump. That is a portion of what fuels me these days. Hate will never be my weapon in this fight though. Hate cannot build, it can only destroy. I know that. My hate is inescapable baggage that I have to reconcile, but it is not what I bring to the negotiation table or the political battlefield. In other words, my hate is MY problem and I have no right to make it anybody else’s problem any more than they have the right to make their hate America’s problem.
Yes, I hate the man and what he stands for. But, like the overwhelming majority of people in this country, even most of the (minority of) people who voted for the man, I am better that Donald Trump. I don’t know you, but the extreme odds are that YOU are better than Donald Trump. I will not let him push me into acting like the worst of what America has to offer. Regardless of your political viewpoints, you should not let him either. When people of all political persuasions are able to have honest and civil discussions and look for actual solutions to our problems, the malevolent garbage that comes from Donald Trump’s mouth, mouthpieces and Twitter client will cease to matter.
Who knows… maybe Donald will discover a level of civility and honesty he has not demonstrated in what passes for his political career. If he does, as an American, he is welcome to a seat at the table in my book. Until he does he must be opposed with every fact, every ounce of love and every ounce of civility we can muster.
Donald can have his stupid wall… The rest of us should be building bridges.
