Donald Trump is a grotesque.

He is a small and petty man, mean spirited and vain.  He’s a clown, a buffoon, yet he masquerades with bombast and conceited self-centered arrogance.  He is a liar, a braggart, and a bully.  He is a grotesque.

Policy is not the primary issue.  The United States has a right to manage immigration.  The United States has a right to protect its people from terrorist attack.  The United States has a right to protect the jobs of its citizens in a global economy of trade.

It is not necessarily the core of his policies that strike a deeply repulsive trigger in his opponents, it is his twisted and grotesque humanity, and it is his existential threat to the foundational principles of our country.

He is a demagogue, a petty dictator, stoking fears and hatred.  He is Mussolini standing on the balcony posing in his attitude of smug arrogance before adoring crowds.  He is a threat to the very liberties that are the bedrock of our country.

Our dear Lady Liberty stands in New York harbor with her words of welcome and comfort to the oppressed:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

In Trump’s words we hear the betrayal of our dear Lady Liberty; “We don’t want you here.”

He lies with abandon, undermining truth, so that he can impose his will without restriction and accountability. 

He undermines our freedom of the press who challenge him, so that he can impose his will without restriction and accountability.  He is an existential threat to our democracy and our liberties.

John McCain, a member of Trump’s own political party, a war hero and a demonstrated man of courage, says of Trump’s actions,

“If you want to preserve — I’m very serious now — if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press, and without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”

“That’s how dictators get started.”

Donald Trump calls a free press, “the enemy of the American people.”  No.  A free press is the enemy of dictators.  A free and adversarial press is the ally of the American People.  You, Donald Trump, are the enemy of American values and principles.

Donald Trump attacks and undermines confidence in the American justice system, a co-equal branch of government charged with providing checks and balances on the overreach of executive authority and power.

Donald trump is a liar, a fake, a fraud, a phony.  He lacks courage, he is afraid of his shadow, but presents with arrogant braggadocio.  He’s afraid his cowardice will be revealed.   He blusters and threatens, but he “doth protest too much.”  He is afraid.  He is a small man.  He has no courage.

He fears the authenticity of women, so he objectifies them to make them safe.  He fears the “otherness” of people of color, so he demonizes and expels them from the land of White America.  He fears that his weakness and cowardice will be exposed, so he blusters and threatens.

He is a weak, timid little man, trying to hide his weakness and inadequacy behind bluster and treats. 

We see it.  We see his cowardice.  We all see it.

Donald Trump is a grotesque.  A twisted and mangled example of humanity. 

Would any parent be proud of a son who acted like Donald Trump?  Arrogant, a braggart, a liar, a bully.  Is that a son a parent could be proud of?

The quintessential American hero is epitomized by the quiet strength of Gary Cooper in High Noon, the passionate humility of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the courage and sacrifice of John Wayne in the Sands of Iwo Jima.  These are the symbolic icons of the American hero.  Not the self-conceited braggadocio, the inner moral cowardice, the liar, the bully, and the fraud of Donald Trump.

We oppose Donald Trump because he represents a threat to the very principles of our American democracy. 

He seeks to undermine our confidence in the truth so that he is not restricted in his arbitrary exercise of power and can avoid accountability.  Under Donald Trump, the truth becomes whatever he asserts it to be, millions voted illegally (not true), he had the largest inauguration crowds (not true), that the news media is fake (not true), that there were terrorist attacks that weren’t reported by the news media (not true), that our Muslim neighbors are a threat (not true), that our Hispanic neighbors are rapists and drug dealers (not true), that our African-American neighbors are a threat (not true). 

The world, the truth, and reality itself becomes whatever Donald Trump asserts it to be in an Orwellian nightmare of “alternative facts.”

No.  We will stand for truth.  We will stand for courage.  We will stand for love and inclusion.  We will stand for the rights of all Americans to live free. 

We will not be afraid of our shadow.  We are Americans. We will not cower in fear.

We will stand firm against the paranoid fears of a small and petty would be dictator.  We see his cowardice.  We see his fears.  And we are not afraid.

We honor truth, and courage, dignity, and respect.  We honor self-assured confidence,  modesty, and quiet strength.  We honor liberty, and our right to lively and vigorous debate.  We are Americans.

And as Americans, we oppose the grotesque humanity that is Donald Trump.

That this grotesque human is our President is a national disgrace.  Our shame as a nation that we present this grotesque human as our face to the world.  Lady Liberty weeps.  America’s shame.

He is not my president. 

I am a proud American.  I am proud of my country and of the principles for which we stand, indivisible, one nation, with liberty and justice for all. 

I reject this grotesque display of humanity as my President.

Craig Childress, Psy.D.