Dear Trump Voters

You’re making a big mistake. A whopper. Believe me; OK?

What a big con you’re falling for. Make America great again? Trump has no clue what made it great. It wasn’t walls to keep out foreigners (and foreign goods). And it sure wasn’t brutes like him. His candidacy already drags America in the dirt.

A really big con. Bring back those old time factory jobs? Delusional. And what Trump is talking about, to supposedly achieve this, is economic suicide. Because most things you buy would be costlier. Most Americans – you especially – would be poorer. That import tax he advocates, to keep out cheap Chinese goods? It would really be a tax on you.

You feel economically insecure – so you put faith in a billionaire? Like he cares about you? He says he created jobs. Trouble is, he didn’t pay the people who did them. That’s how he got rich – by screwing people, by not paying his bills, by skipping out on debts. By looting his businesses and leaving a trail of financial ruin and lawsuits. With frauds like Trump University, stealing the savings of people like you. He’s even stealing money contributed to his campaign. And stiffing its employees. (And it’s Hillary you think should be jailed?)
I know it’s futile saying Trump cynically exploits overblown fear of terrorism. You’re 100 times likelier to take a bullet from your own gun. Terrorism is mainly psychological warfare, and one of its greatest assets, in spreading the fear it aims for, is Trump.

And there’s the lying. Compulsive, pathological lying. Politicians may bend the truth; Trump disembowels it. Lying about New Jerseyites celebrating 9/11. Lying about his past stance on the Iraq War. Even when he meets a foreign leader (Mexico’s president), he lies about the discussion. (“Telling it like it is?”)

And lying about why he won’t reveal his tax returns. What’s he hiding? Why do you imagine such a liar is not making a fool of you about everything? The Economist has examined the phenomenon of “post-truth politics” encouraging people to forgo critical thinking in favor of having their feelings and prejudices reinforced by spoon-fed garbage. Trump’s earlier nonsensical “Birther” campaign was a prime example.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

And then there’s the incitement of violence, encouraging supporters to punch people, saying he’ll pay their legal bills. Even hinting someone should shoot his opponent.

And the ignorance. The willful ignorance of an ego so out of control he thinks he knows everything. “I know more than the generals about ISIS.” And he insisted – emphatically – “Putin isn’t going into Ukraine.”

Hello? Read a f**king newspaper.*

And he admires Putin; prefers him our own president. Putin, the dictator, thief, murderer (literally). Putin, another big liar, who has shredded Europe’s peace, our worst enemy who’s messed with us at every turn. And Putin wants Trump to win, too – he, at least, understands it would do the opposite of making America great again. (Watch out for a late dirty trick by the Kremlin aimed at throwing the election to Trump.)

And the insults (McCain not a war hero – the judgment of Trump who dodged the draft). He wants immigrants screened for their adherence to American values (as if that’s doable). How about screening presidential candidates for adherence to American values? They don’t include lies, frauds, thefts, insults, violence, and bigotry, fear, and hate.

To quote leading author and columnist Thomas Friedman, Trump is “a disgusting human being. His children should be ashamed of him.”

But Trump famously has said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and lose no votes (insulting his own supporters). They do seem impervious to any damning truths about him. This shows they back him not for what he is but for what he represents. This is cultural: revenge of the no-class losers.

The Economist has also reported a careful analysis, through sifting survey data, concluding that the most common factor behind Trump support is really racial resentment – the idea that non-whites are undeservingly coddled; that a less white America is a worse America. You may well deny this, while actually deceiving yourself. What we really think, and what we think we think, can differ.

But we should search our hearts, and not give reign to our basest impulses. What a tragedy for America if this vile creep wins.

* Yeah, I know your answer: he’ll surround himself with sage experts. But so far it’s mostly a gaggle of rump-kissing lowlifes.