Sputter and spit

It's hard to think or write about "normal" issues with all this Trump outrage floating around in the ether. His sexually aggressive and vile comments have generated a lot of unwelcome emotion, especially among women. I don't know any woman who hasn't been verbally or physically abused by some jackass at some point in her life, including me. Seeing his words plastered on every news site and constantly replayed brings unwelcome and often hurtful memories. We sink into a swamp of fear and disgust.

And betrayal. We could all see this coming, he's been taunting us with his crazy ideas for a year now. How did he get this far?

Call me naive but before Donald Trump became such a crowd pleaser I had actually begun to believe we might, finally, be growing up, that we were close—not there yet, but close—to accepting others as themselves, no matter their religion, gender identity, skin color, or sex. I was even crazy enough to believe that equal rights and equal pay for women might be on the horizon. But then we heard Donald's distant braying.

Now he's no longer a distant annoyance, he's right in our faces with his outrageous conduct, not just the sexual remarks but his constant, unconstrained lying, his arrogance, and of course his narcissism. He is so unfit to lead this nation that it leaves me speechless—all I can do is sputter and spit—an unhappy position for a writer. How has this country been brought to such debasement? This is surely not the direction we want to go.

I don't care who you vote for. You can write in the name of your pet turtle or your favorite aunt, or the nice man down the street. It really doesn't matter. Just don't vote for Trump. Let's stand strong together and use our votes to deprive him of the prize. Humiliate and shame him as he has shamed so many women. Then let him run to his golden toilet, lock the door and stay there. Forever.