I Refuse to Tolerate Donald Trump and His Supporters

We’ve Worked Too Hard to Allow Trump’s Racism, Xenophobia, and Bigotry Rule the Day

On Thursday night, Donald Trump gave his nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. It was incredibly dark and scary, and it freaked the hell out of me. It should scare the crap out of you, too.

In response, I posted this on Facebook:

I’ve been really reluctant to jump on the Trump/Hitler comparison bandwagon because I’m a firm believer that certain historical events and people are simply incomparable. Listening to Trump’s speech tonight is making me strongly – very strongly – reconsider that position.

Let me be as clear as possible: If you plan on voting for Trump, there is no place for you in my life. You are shameful and represent the worst of humanity. Trump is the absolute worst of what we have to offer, and if you endorse his ideas and behavior you will be complicit in the darkness that is to come.

We have the power to stop this, but it’s going to take every single one of us. How will you feel when your grandkids ask you why no one stood up to the evil?

I’m still reluctant to go full-out with the Trump/Hitler comparison. There are, without a doubt, echoes of Hitler in Trump – it doesn’t take more than a minute or two of paying attention to figure out – but I hope and pray we never get to the point where the comparison becomes wholly accurate.

What I find most surprising, though, wasn’t that I was being hyperbolic (I was, because a little bit of drama makes a point get across a little bit faster), but that I was accused of being intolerant and “judgmental of folks whose political opinion differs from” mine. 

You know what? Yes. I am, and I was. I am absolutely intolerant of Trump and his supporters. 

Maybe a few months ago I wouldn’t have said this, but after everything that’s happened with his speeches and the disguting Republican platform, I’m done. I’m proud to be intolerant. 

I’m proud to be intolerant of racism.

I’m proud to be intolerant of anti-Semitism.

I’m proud to be intolerant of misogyny.

I’m proud to be intolerant of Islamaphobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of homophobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of transphobia.

I’m proud to be intolerant of xenophobia.

In any other situation I would agree with one commenter who said that a vote for a certain canddiate doesn’t mean an endorsement of their entire platform. There are certainly candidates I’m not 100% in line with but whom I proudly support anyway. I still have yet to find The Perfect Candidate. That’s how it works most of the time, and I know it’s the best we can do, all things considered.

With Trump, however, his offensive qualities so outweigh anything reasonable he may have said at one point by such a large margin I felt like a fool just trying to write this paragraph at all. At this point it’s absolutely impossible to separate out the candidacy from the candidate – or from the party. There is simply no argument to be made for voting for Trump that doesn’t make you a terrible person.

I understand that a polite society requires us all to live and interact with people who often hold views that directly contrast with ours. Most of the time, I can handle tolerance. Tolerance, at its most basic level, simply requires that we don’t get in someone else’s way, even if we absolutely hate them and everything they stand for. Tolerance doesn’t mean approval, it just means I’m not going to try to get you arrested or harm you. It’s the absolutely lowest level of human decency.

Being forced to confront our own biases and learn from others is what usually makes our society so great – but it doesn’t apply here. Tolerance doesn’t apply here. The kind of hate that Trump spews affects us all. It creates a world of fear and disgust and I refuse to allow our country to go down that road. 

I refuse to allow bigotry to rule the day. I refuse to allow the ideals of inequality, xenophobia, and outright fear to become our country’s guiding principals. We’re so much better than that. We’ve worked far too hard for that to happen. 

And if that means that certain people take themselves out of my life because they cannot abandon their bigotry? Well, then good riddance, because they were never really welcome in my life in the first place.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

 

Robbie Medwed is an Atlanta-based LGBTQ activist and educator. His column appears here weekly. Follow him on Twitter: @rjmedwed