linnposts.com

These days many of us continue to be dumbfounded by the fact that, given all we know, so many people still support Donald Trump, especially evangelical Christians.

But as we begin 2020 I want to tell the other side of the story, which is why people like me and many of you don’t support Trump, why we are so opposed to Trump, why we find him such a disgrace to the office he holds and such a danger to the nation.

Those reasons are, of course, implied in the criticisms we make, but it might be worthwhile to put our reasons in some sort of order to make them unmistakably clear, if not persuasive.

Because I cannot speak for anyone but myself, let me give the primary reasons why I am anti-Trump to see if they resonate with you.

First of all, as an American I can say that I don’t support Trump because he makes everything about himself and embarrasses the nation when he does.

There are probably many reasons why he acts this way, most of them arising from serious psychological and emotional problems stemming from his childhood, but why he is self-absorbed is less important to me than the fact that he is.

Trump even made the killing of the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani about his being a better President than his predecessors. Every time he does this kind of thing he shows a pettiness and childishness that I think embarrasses the nation in front of the whole world.

The simple truth is, Trump has no filters and possesses no capacity for decorum or dignity because he cannot get beyond himself to represent the nation as presidents are supposed to do.

Second, after three years the cat is definitely out of the bag. Donald Trump just doesn’t know anything about the issues a President faces, and that is dangerous for the nation and the world.

That should not surprise us since he openly admits that he doesn’t read or study issues.

He listens to Fix News and its array of commentators who are ideological rather than informative, leading him to prove every time he opens his mouth that he does not possess any substantive knowledge of whatever he is supposed to be talking about.

Because he is so woefully uninformed, that makes him ignorant in the literal sense of being a person who is uninformed about the subject he or she is discussing. The fact that his vocabulary is so limited and he uses repetitive superlatives only adds to the sense that his mouth is moving, but he isn’t saying anything. Maybe he’s just intellectually lazy, but whatever the reason for his ignorance, it is a serious flaw for a President to have.

Third, because he has no moral compass, Trump is a terrible example for America’s children and youth.

No one who cares about right and wrong, good and bad, justice and injustice, truth and falsehood could possibly believe that Trump is a person their children and grandchildren should admire.

Presidents don’t have to be virtuous to be admired, but they do have to be decent. Trump is not and never will be, meaning that the only solution is to get him out of the White House.

Fourth, because his presidency is all about himself, he continually sows seeds of division in the nation based solely on who is for him and who is against him. Trump has failed to unite our country for many reasons, but the major one is that he has no desire to do so. His ONLY concern is to maintain support for himself.

Fifth, he lacks the strength of character needed to provide stable leadership for the nation in a time of crisis. Once again his ego is the problem because all of his energy is focused on making himself look good.

Other presidents have been able to provide the kind of leadership we have needed during difficult times, but in three years Donald Trump has failed completely, whether it was Charlottesville or major mass shootings or natural disasters.

A sixth reason I am so strongly anti-Trump is that he is a man who is unequivocally and unambiguously untrustworthy.

Trump has lied so much that no American, no foreign leaders, and no citizens of other nations should believe anything he says, and what is more, most don’t.

This creates a credibility gap for our country that is serious and dangerous, the result of which has been to diminish the standing of the United States in the world to its lowest point in history.

Seventh, Donald Trump should not be President because he has demonstrated that he does not care about his responsibility for preserving our system of government.

Just the opposite. He has been hard at work tearing down the institutions of government that make our democracy work. This is not about disrespecting the members of Congress or believing Vladimir Putin over the U.S. intelligence community or trashing the FBI, all of which he has done.

It’s not about whether the government overreaches or doesn’t reach far enough. It’s not about being Republican or Democratic or independent.

It is, instead, about having a President who fundamentally doesn’t believe in his responsibility to attend to our democratic institutions and agencies in order to preserve our democracy.

Since taking office Donald Trump has shown no respect for or interest in making any part of our government work better. His only concern has been and is his own power, and that is a disservice to every American who wants and needs our government to be as strong and effective as possible.

Every time Trump defies Congress or tries to undermine the three co-equal branches of government, he is attacking us, the American people. He is attacking our Constitution and its flawed, but eloquent attempt to create a lasting system of self-governance.

This is why he took information from Russia in 2016 and why he wanted to use the Ukrainians against Joe Biden. His disregard for the rule of law means he does not care about our democracy, only about his own presidency.

Finally, and most importantly, I do not support Donald Trump because of his abject disregard for future generations of Americans when it comes to climate change and preserving and protecting the Constitution that is their heritage.

Trump has no interest in policies so he has turned all of it over to radical right-wing conservatives whose agenda is to protect the rich and privileged by reducing government to a whimper.

They are, then, hard at work behind the scenes gutting any and all government regulations they believe limit them in making money, undoing long-established regulations everyone else considers needful and helpful. Allowing coal sludge to be dumped in creeks once again is one example of their foolish and selfish efforts, all of which are made possible by Trump being President.

I love my children and grandchildren too much to support a man who doesn’t care about future generations of Americans who will suffer the consequences of the shortsighted regulation policies being put into place under his leadership.

So this is the other side of the story that explains why I am adamantly opposed to the Trump presidency.

Frankly, at this point, I don’t care why his supporters are standing with him. What I do care about is making sure the future of his presidency lies in my hands and people like me instead of theirs.

The reasons above are all the motivation I need to make sure that happens.