Opinion | Donald Trump has slipped over the edge. Stop supporting him

Within the past two months, the former president of the United States has suggested the execution of a U.S. military leader, poked fun at the savage beating of the spouse of a political rival, claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country and suggested that police shoot to kill shoplifters. 

This is a crazy person. 

No. I will not accept any pushback on this. 

If this afternoon, you wandered into a store and heard someone proclaim that immigrants are poisoning the blood of the country, you’d leave. Well, assuming you’re not a crazy racist, you’d leave. 

Over the last few months, as his future life of incarceration becomes increasingly more apparent, Donald Trump has lost his grip on whatever fragments of sanity he possessed previously. And he is now firmly in the land of crazy dictator. 

Oh, you disagree? 

Well, let me remind you that on Veterans’ Day, Trump’s message to the country was not one of gratitude and inspiration for the troops. Instead, it was a promise that, if elected in 2024, he would rid the country of his political opponents, which he referred to as “vermin.” 

You know who else called political opponents vermin? 

Hitler and Mussolini. 

They also denigrated certain groups of people, claiming that their mere existence within their countries tainted bloodlines and made the countries weaker. They painted these groups as enemies and used the vermin rhetoric to reduce them to subhuman species that deserved to be mistreated and killed. 

And here we have a former U.S. president doing the same. As people, including thousands of Bible-thumping, constitution-waving Christians in this state, cheer him on. Buy swag with his face on it. Fly flags with his name on them. 

I generally don’t care for the overused Hitler comparisons, but I have to admit that I find myself wondering way too often these days whether there were German citizens watching the rise of Hitler and asking themselves if everyone had gone bat-guano insane. If they don’t see what’s happening. If they really don’t know that the emperor isn’t wearing clothes. 

Because let’s be clear: We are extremely fortunate that the last Trump administration didn’t end in a (more) bloody successful coup. 

As two of Trump’s former lawyers testified under oath recently, in videos that emerged on Monday, Trump had every intention of finding a way to stay in office and he didn’t much care about the results of the election. 

Former attorney Jenna Ellis, while meeting with prosecutors in Georgia, where Trump faces numerous felony charges, said that a former Trump aide, Dan Scavino, told her that “the boss,” as Trump was referred to, was “not going to leave under any circumstances. We are just going to stay in power.” 

That conversation allegedly took place on Dec. 19, 2020, well after electors had cast their votes and all election disputes had been settled. The election had been certified and it was clearly over. 

But they didn’t give a damn. 

Trump and his cult were planning a coup to remain in power, doing everything they could to coerce state officials in Georgia into “finding” votes and trying like hell to push the “stolen election” narrative. 

It’s probably no coincidence that Dec. 19 was also the day that mobilization efforts began in earnest to bring supporters to D.C. for a Jan. 6 rally. And an insurrection. 

Both Ellis and another Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, make it crystal clear in the videos that Trump was intimately involved in the schemes, and that when some aides told him he had lost and it was over, he mocked them. 

He knew what he was doing and he didn’t care. The power was too important. 

It’s honestly a bit scary to me that so many people around this country, and especially in this state, could be suckered in so completely by a con man like Trump. That they’d willingly sacrifice the very tenets of this country – just hand over the checks and balances and overlook the multiple violations of the constitution – for a hateful, ignorant, narcissistic dictator-wannabe. 

Don’t get me wrong – I have no fear that Trump will be elected president again. I’m not sure he’ll win the GOP nomination. But I am afraid of a voting bloc so easily and readily manipulated. 

I mean, this wealthy, pudgy New York liberal-for-life has suckered backwoods Alabamians into hoisting flags with his name on them above their working-class homes by doing nothing more than saying nasty things about minorities and pretending to be tough. 

What are y’all doing? 

Look, if you want to vote for a Republican for president, while I think that’s insane unless you’re ultra-wealthy, go for it. Maybe something will trickle down for you eventually. There are probably a couple of candidates in the ongoing debates who could beat Joe Biden. 

But we’ve got to stop this cult-like following of Trump. There’s more than enough evidence at this point that he’s broken dozens of laws, violated the constitution and cares way more about himself and his personal ambitions than he does about this country. 

Your continued support of such an individual makes you as crazy as he is.