Donald Trump is toxic, a pollutant. He is corrosive to our discourse, our politics, our sense of community, our faith in each other and our faith in ourselves. His success humiliates and debases us all.
And he's a sexual predator, apparently. A boastful one.
Today Michelle Obama was moved to talk about this. Michelle Obama is an amazing orator, and I'm glad she chose to speak up in this way at this moment. I was moved to tears. It's a shining moment in a time of darkness.
Trump is beneath decent people, and it has been painful to see him held up as a model of success, to be admired and rewarded with power. It is gratifying to see Michelle Obama assert so eloquently that we have better standards, and affirm basic human decency.
The contrast between Trump and a person like Michelle Obama couldn't be more stark.
Still, I wish people would stop characterizing this as a "take down" or a "slam" against Trump. That diminishes the grace and dignity of this speech. Yes, she's rejecting Trump, but more importantly she's calling us all to join in solidarity in embracing decency.
She's challenging the debased idea of America he pushes -- that horrible, fearful place where everybody who matters is white and hunkered down with their guns waiting for some dark-faced menace to come through the door; a place where men are only pretending to be men, but are really vulgar, cynical adolescents chortling in locker rooms about women they only pretend to respect and admire; a place where a women is nothing but a legal obstacle standing between a man's desires and her body, and if you've got enough power, you don't have to worry about that because you can get away with it.
That's not the America I live in or want to live in. I want to fight that vision of America. I want to fight the influence of men like Trump. I don't want people like him defining our values or having any power over others. I don't want men like him ever thinking they can get away with it.
I live in Michelle Obama's America, and I want to keep it that way.