image courtesy of DonkeyHotey on Flickr: "This painting of Donald Trump was adapted from Creative Commons licensed images from Gage Skidmore's flickr photostream."(CC BY-SA 2.0)

If you support Donald Trump and the things he stands for, then we can't be friends.

I'm not saying I don’t like you. I'm not even saying I don’t want to be friends with you.

I'm saying that if you support Trump, then I technically can’t be your friend.

We can be fellow tax payers. We can root for the same football team. We might even consider ourselves Facebook friends. But... friends? Real friends? I can't. It's technically impossible.

For a friendship is a wholly unique creation that occurs when two people's souls intersect, and if you support Donald Trump for president then in the venn diagram of our ideologies, our circles don’t even overlap.

I mean, we couldn't do any of the things real friends do!

For instance: I wouldn’t want to watch fireworks with you on the 4th of July, for what kind of patriotism includes supporting a leader who mocks the valor of an American war hero?

I would always be a little nervous that you might sling a "harmless" racist joke across the dinner table since you are okay with the treatment of the #BlackLivesMatter protester at the Trump rally at the hands of your fellow Trump supporters. We are the company we keep.

We couldn't have any deep conversations, for your critical thinking skills are elementary at best. My 7 year old has already called it: the best way to create more home-grown ISIS terror cells in this country is to demonize the Muslim faith. Mission accomplished. We will never be victorious over our enemies by creating more enemies - both within our borders and without.

Speaking of my son, Trump is already having a negative effect on his life. See, my second grader sits shoulder to shoulder with Muslim children in his classroom. Trump's Islamophobic Bandwagon is creating a feeling of cynical paranoia between innocents, and tarnishing relationships that once held so much potential for new alliances to be forged.

Trump's ideology threatens the opportunity our children have to foster a new dialogue; to create a self-determined narrative that is removed from the sins of their parents. Donald Trump's Muslim warpath is only perpetuating more of the same dysfunction that he says he wishes to end.

So I couldn't even invite you to see my kid in a school play! I would be uncomfortable bringing you around our friends.

I also wouldn’t ask your recommendation for any books or movies because your judgement is whack. I mean, you are willing to hand the nation’s future over to someone who used to keep a copy of Hitler’s speeches next to his bed. (And then lies about it.)

I couldn't trust you with my secrets, for personal integrity does not seem to be very important to you. After all, you support a man who Twitter-snarked that there were no accomplished sport heroes of the Muslim faith (because why?), then never recanted and acknowledged that sports legend Muhammad Ali was just such an athlete. Muhammed frickin' Ali, dude!

You know what? I'm done being playful about this.

This Trump scourge goes far beyond the usual election year tug-of-war over fiscal policies and the semantics of the 2nd amendment: this is the darkest part of our humanity being reflected back to us. This is about a charismatic madman slowly hypnotizing people into believing that hatred is somehow the pathway to peace: that exclusion of the “other” is the way to greatness.

So when you support this blistering orange narcissist, you are saying Yes to a crusade of religious persecution while ignoring the well-documented legacies of those most despicable villains who also rose to power on the platform of spiritual superiority and the reclamation of a fairy tale past.

And I won't stand for it in my inner circle. I don't want that Faithless garbage in my son's life - at least not until he's fully capable of maintaining personal boundaries between himself and evil, evil shit.

But the sad, terrifying truth is that democracy might well mean that we have the right to elect a fascist dictator into office. I’m sure that not every German citizen was on board with the yellow patches on the arms of their fellow countrymen. I'm sure their sympathiser friends sneered at them, disgusted by their seeming indifference to the threat at hand. I’m sure there were millions who felt helpless as their country dissolved into a human slaughterhouse.

So if, God forbid, that is the bleak trajectory we are on, the least and most I can do is make it very, very clear, to my fellow Americans and to my son, where I stand on the issue of Donald Trump.

We are the company we keep. I will not stand with those participating in this tidal wave of discrimination being perpetuated by the very same fundamentalism we claim to be at war with. I would rather maintain a small circle of people demonstrating Real Love for their fellow man than stand with an Army of Ignorance that's hell-bent on proving they are the King of the Hill - even after the world has lost respect for them.

Hold up, now. I’m not such a fool as to deny that ISIS is a real threat. It is clear that there are terrorists out there who dream of a world without the United Stated of America. And if we follow Trump's lead into his vision for this country, they will get their wish. Our nation is great BECAUSE of the principles imbedded in her foundation, and without the freedom of religion, we collapse.

I won’t be a part of it. I can’t.

But if you ever decide to come back from the dark side, I'll be waiting for you.

****

That's my piece, and I yearn for peace. Thank you for taking the time to read my words. It truly means the world. Carry on...

OSM

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