For the next six weeks I will be working remotely: a U.S. citizen in Europe. As I write this I am flying over the frozen pole, contemplating the inflight movie I have just seen, Suffragette. It brought to mind the words of my Grandmother, the fiercely loving woman who, along with my Mother, raised me.
On one second Tuesday of November, while we walked together to the polls, I asked her, “When was the first time you voted?” Her answer was, “I voted in the first election in which women could.” That was 1920 when my Grandma was 22. She died at age 91 having never missed a vote. To her it was not only a right; it was a sacred duty.
Alfredo (Casuso) and I have made certain that our vote will be counted from abroad. We had not planned it this way, but work opportunities drop into our laps often with plane tickets attached. This year, especially, I am grateful for the chance to see and listen to other perspectives as the world waits—and holds its breath—until November 8. When the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold.
This year the U.S. is in the grips of something far more insidious than merely the grip. It has become the sneeze heard round the world. It is the hacking cough of Donald Trump. It is a disease of fear and socially-mediated manure. It stinks.
I actually know people who are voting for Donald Trump, which is their perfect right. My tiny screed will not convince them otherwise. Neither will the unprecedented condemnations of the country’s editorial pages: left, right and center. Neither, evidently, will the unseemly and grotesquely base antics of a serial narcissist keep some from pulling the “Trump” lever.
Do I think they are deplorable? No, I think they have tied their hopes for change to a rancid candidate.
And so, I don’t try to “change” a vote. I urge those who have never voted—or who don’t think it matters, or who just can’t summon the energy of a 91-year-old woman—to get off their duffs and to give a damn.
Having visited over 70 countries, I can assure you that Donald Trump is an embarrassment to everything for which our nation stands. I have walked the beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of Italy and the jungles of Rabaul. I know the price our country has paid in blood and treasure for the world’s freedom. It’s a promise that can’t be paid for on credit, or leveraged against the development debt of a casino.
Donald Trump is not worthy of those fields of honor. No policy put forth by the Republican Party can redeem the emptiness of his character and the dishonor he has already done to our national brand.
Reject him.
On Election Day, repudiate Donald Trump. Reject the fear on which he feeds. Push his seaminess back into the swamps of reality TV and show the world that we have not lost our way as well as our minds.
If you are Republican, work to rebuild the Party of Lincoln. If you are a Democrat, work to hold our candidate to a higher standard. But let’s be real and let’s be honest: Donald Trump is in a league of his own, and that league is one that is horrifying to the rest of the civilized and thinking world.
Truly, the world is watching.
David Perry is the creator/host of “10 Percent,” the longest running LGBT TV show in California history. He is also the Co-Founder of the Rainbow Honor Walk and the CEO/Founder of David Perry & Associates, Inc.
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