Think about it. Shortly after 9/11 there were comical, I thought then, photoshopped images of George W. Bush wearing a turban. Twenty years later we see that instead of Iraq and Afghanistan becoming functioning democracies, the United States is becoming a one-man nation. Crowds storming the US Capital buildings at the instigation of their leader, who time and time again informs us that he is the only one who can save us. Stick with me and everything will be all right, I’ll watch out for you, he says. Millions of people have voted not to uphold democracy. Donald Trump doesn’t believe in democracy, he doesn’t believe in government at all. He believes one man should have total power, just like a CEO of some company which he owns. He has no respect for the institutions of government created by the founding fathers, people who were far more intelligent and less morally corrupt than he is.

Is it really time to toss it all in? Give up on democracy, where power is always balanced between the three branches in order to constrain men, or women, like Donald Trump? Men who want to become dictators? Look at all the people he admires, they are every single one brutal dictators who execute those who oppose them.

I am so glad my father, who fought in Germany during WWII is not here to see this. The sacrifices he and hundreds of thousands of others made to protect our democracy, and the belief that all men are created with equal rights under the law, that living in a country governed by laws, not individuals, was worth the sacrifice. He, thankfully returned home after the war, but it scarred him for life as it did many others who fought to oppose a mad man. Just remember, Hitler was voted into power, and then stoked the resentment the German people felt for the hardships that had been forced on them after WWI. That resentment erupted into hatred and into world conflict. Hitler started out saying he would address those grievances. Once in power, he didn’t stop there, he used the state he had seized control of to create what he hoped would be world domination. Anyone who opposed him was simply imprisoned or killed. This is the terrible danger involved in electing a person who does not uphold the law, who does not believe in the rule of law. The constitution becomes meaningless.