“I am not mad at you that Clinton lost.”

This is the title of a meme floating around the Interweb; it’s popped up on my Facebook feed a couple of times, and after reading and rereading it several times I find that it so precisely captures one of the main things that upsets me about this election that I decided to post it here. (Note: a kind reader named Skip sent me the link to the original author).

First, I should preface this:  I see the following paragraph as directed toward people who specifically supported Trump, not all those who voted for him; I’m differentiating them from those who voted for him but were really voting against Clinton. That’s another issue.

Anyhow:

“I am not made at you that Clinton lost. I am unconcerned that we have different politics. And I don’t think less of you because you vote one way and I vote another. No…I think less of you because you watched an adult mock a disabled person in front of a crowd and still supported him. I think less of you because you saw a man spouting clear racism and backed him. I think less of you because you listened to him advocate for war crimes, and still thought he should run this country. I think less of you because you watched him equate a woman’s worth to her appearance and got on board. It isn’t your politics that I find repulsive. It is your personal willingness to support racism, sexism and cruelty. You sided with a bully when it mattered and that is something I will never forget. So, no…you and I won’t be “coming together” to move forward or whatever. Trump disgusts me, but it is the fact that he doesn’t disgust you that will stick with me long after this election.”

These character traits are not things concocted by a hostile media. I saw them with my own eyes and heard them with my own ears. I cannot imagine a scenario where it would be OK to publicly humiliate a vulnerable 19 year-old girl; especially from the position of power that he had in the Miss Universe contest. I cannot condone mocking a disabled person for a laugh in front of a fawning crowd. To condone what our own military has labeled a war crime? And to say that his admission of sexual battery was just “locker room talk” is beneath contempt. In what locker room? It’s something I might expect a stupid little 8-year old kid to say, but a grown adult? Billy Bush rightfully got canned for his part in it; Trump gets excused. But not by me.

There may have been people who ran for president in the past who were spectacularly unqualified for the office; there may have been those who ran as nasty and divisive a campaign as Trump did. But I can’t remember anyone who so strongly embraced and demonstrated the exact qualities and characteristics I abhor, being selected as a leader. Or someone who purports to be a leader; I could never look up to someone like Trump. And while I know that there are lots of people out there like that, the fact that millions…millions of my fellow citizens voted for this contemptible creature staggers me.

And now he’s going to be President of the United States. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: I thought we were better than that.