Opinion | Donald Trump has broken America

There was a time not long ago – fairly recently, actually – that a major party’s nominee saying out loud that he would consider using the U.S. military to go after his political opponents and those with a differing ideology would cause such outrage and scorn from the American public that the candidate would be annihilated come election day. 

In the era of the maga cult, it somehow barely made headlines. 

It didn’t make the front page of the New York Times’ website, or the front pages of most news websites. It didn’t cause a stir. On a list of top stories on CNN, it was 14th. 

Around Alabama, you’d be hard pressed to find people talking about it, much less worrying about it. 

It is official: Donald Trump has broken America. 

That is the only logical conclusion at this point. All of the things that America supposedly stood for – religious freedoms, freedoms of speech and press, separation of church and state, the shining beacon on the hill, the welcoming arms of the tired, hungry and huddled masses – have been tossed aside like bags of garbage, as a decent-sized minority in this country worship at the altar of a faux-tough guy and con man. 

This is not hyperbole. Donald Trump has stepped all over those rights and ideals mentioned above. Let us recount the ways. 

Just a few months ago, he proposed a religious test for anyone entering the country. In fact, he promised to “implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants,” to ensure that they like “our religion.” 

Trump, of course, has no religion – aside from worshiping himself – so one could only assume that he was speaking of Christianity. What particular brand of Christianity is, obviously, unclear, as is whether or not Trump is aware that different denominations exist. 

A few weeks back, Trump started in on his “dictator for a day” comments, an expansion of his long-held dream of using the power of the office of president to exact revenge on his political opponents. That was also the context of his recent comments in which he spoke of using the military to go after political opponents. 

Of course, he didn’t label them his political opponents, but instead referred to them as “radical left lunatics” and “the enemy from within.” Handling them, he said, would only take a short time, and could be done by the National Guard, or if necessary, the military.

This was on the heels of Trump’s increasingly hateful rhetoric directed at immigrants, often promising to violate our constitution to remove even migrant workers here legally and push out legal U.S. citizens born in this country. 

Why would he do such a thing? 

Because those immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of this country. 

A guy who is a major party’s nominee for president said this. Out loud. In front of thousands. 

That’s some real-life dictator talk. Seriously. Real dictators have said things remarkably similar to this. 

And all of this is ON TOP OF the fact that when he lost four years ago, he became the first American president in history to try not to leave. It is now a documented and proven fact that this guy tried to pull off a coup by undermining the results of a fair election without a shred of proof, or even the belief that what he was saying was true. 

But instead of this getting the treatment it deserves and Trump being treated as a pariah, as he deserves, here we are three weeks before the election, with polling experts insisting that the race is too close to call, and a good chunk of the media and the American public just acting like things are normal. 

Take a step back – I’m begging you – and look at this from a 20,000-foot perspective. 

On one side is this guy talking about poisoning the blood and using the military to go after political opponents and imposing a religious test. And on the other … we’re asking whether she really worked at McDonald’s way back when and if the guy who served in the military for 24 years was committed enough. 

And the American public is even worse: Oh, yeah, he does want to deport citizens and kill those who say bad things about him, but have you seen the price of eggs lately? 

Trump has broken America. This system we had in place for picking a president was not built to withstand a candidate who, without shame or pause, lied like a rug repeatedly about everything; who said 250 ridiculously false and/or inflammatory things in a single rally; who made wildly insane comments one day and then pretended he didn’t a day later; who attacked everyone and everything that dared question the utter BS that comes out of his mouth constantly; who played the victim while simultaneously playing the tough guy; who always, always, always has someone else to blame.

We’re a full decade into this freak show and still so many in the media and general public are being conned by this sleight of hand and mouth. 

If Kamala Harris was caught running a phony university that scammed thousands, had her charity shut down for misappropriating funds, paid off a porn star mistress and had been convicted of even a misdemeanor, she’d be completely unelectable.

But as it stands, a whole bunch of people are going to vote for the wannabe dictator because she hasn’t been real clear on how she’s going to pay for her tax plan. And we’re acting like that’s all just normal. 

Because Trump has broken America.