Having grown up in a community and family with mixed political beliefs, I work hard to maintain some sense of respect and understanding for those with views that differ from mine. I genuinely do believe – despite moments of frustration and outrage – that most people are fundamentally good and want good things for the world, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.

However, on three specific counts, in this election, I have a great difficulty forgiving anyone who votes for Donald Trump. Three things that are big enough, bad enough, that they objectively should obscure any other considerations.

The first is climate change. Despite all the talk of immigration and inflation, climate change is by far the biggest challenge facing our nation (and world, obviously). We don’t talk about it because it is so scary and depressing that frankly, we’d rather not. Trump thinks climate change is a hoax and wants to roll back every microstep that we’ve taken in the right direction in recent years. To me, these assertions amount to a crime against humanity, because his choices will literally lead to the deaths of millions of people in the next decades. The fact that Kamala Harris feels like she has to hide her pro-climate credentials for the sake of Pennsylvania puzzles and infuriates me, but at least I know that she quietly aspires to do something to save our planet.

The second is his rhetoric around immigration and immigrants. My husband is an immigrant and I teach dozens of newly arrived immigrants in school. These students are without exception hard-working, smart, respectful and ambitious, and I constantly feel the need to apologize to them for the behavior and attitude of their classmates who were born in the U.S. The fact that Donald Trump, who possesses none of these positive qualities, uses his platform to belittle decent people and stoke hatred and fear for immigrants among his supporters is frankly revolting.

The third reason is perhaps the simplest. Donald Trump doesn’t even remotely believe in democracy or fair elections. Why isn’t that alone enough to end this brutal eight-year battle we’ve been waging?

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