Americans must reject Trump to defend our democracy

Obviously the big news this week is the fact that Joe Biden has officially stepped down as the Democratic nominee and endorsed his VP, Kamala Harris, to be the next president of the United States. This makes me so sad for him…because this is very clearly not how he saw his decades-long term of service coming to an end.

I know he thought he was the one to beat Trump. And I’m sure he’s very anxious about the months to come.

But step down he did. And so now is the time for the Democrats to unite, to put their full weight behind Ms. Harris, and to make. This. Happen.

Because we may be moving towards a new nominee, but Trump is still Trump, in all of his viciousness and dictatorial cosplaying. Yes, Trump had an attempt made on his life. Yes, he sort of blustered through a few minutes of “we must stand together” rhetoric during the RNC.

But he is not a different person because of that gunshot. Not even close. And for the media to even suggest he might be sets up an incredibly dangerous narrative.

You know that RNC speech that was supposed to be all “brand-new Trump”? I want to point out one moment that took place at that event, because it’s an important one.

[Insert clip of Trump talking about Nancy Pelosi and making a hammering motion with his fist.]

That, right there, is a reference to the attempt made on Nancy Pelosi’s husband life. A man broke into their home in the middle of the night and attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer. He almost died. And Trump – a man who just had an attempt made on his own life, and who one might think would have grown an empathetic bone or two in the wake of that event…Trump used it as a bit.

These attacks that Trump makes on his political opponents – they are personal, and they are aggressive. They are specifically intended to incite violence, even if he doesn’t issue direct orders. He knows that through these attacks recreates a charged atmosphere that emboldens his supporters to turn to violence.

Remember that time back in 2016 when Trump said of a protestor that he’d, quote, “like to punch him in the face”? And another time, when he waxed nostalgic about how protestors used to be, quote, “carried out on stretchers”? I don’t think we’ve seen even a fraction of the violence that Trump’s supporters are capable of, and as the election draws closer they’ll only become more and more activated by Trump’s calls to action.

I’m saddened by the loss of Joe Biden as a nominee not because I think he should have stayed in the race – I truly believe he made the right call, and see his choice as an act of incredible patriotism – but because with the loss of Joe Biden we’re losing something intangible but deeply profound: Decency.