A week before the election, Donald Trump was getting pummeled for hosting a white nationalist rally at Madison Square Garden featuring misogynistic and racist speeches and a “comedian” who called Puerto Rico an “island of garbage.”

The next day, President Biden rebuked those remarks in an awkward way that left Trump cultists claiming Biden had called all Trump supporters garbage. This story took off like wildfire. Trump rolled up to a press conference in a garbage truck, and his daily insults and threats toward Kamala Harris and her supporters were forgotten. I realized then that our democracy is officially doomed.

There is no “policy discussion,” or even fact-based debate we can have about which candidate is actually willing and able to govern. Trump has turned American politics into an anger-tainment shit show.

There’s no way to counter Trump’s constant lies, threats and calculated chaos. Every sentence written about him should refer to Trump as a convicted felon who paid off a porn star, partied with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and was found liable for sexual assault.

Every story should remind Americans that Trump, whose father handed him millions, is not a “good businessman,” but a twice-impeached narcissist who declared bankruptcy numerous times, lost money running a casino (how does that even happen?), sucked up to dictators, illegally kept classified documents as souvenirs and probably killed tens of thousands of Americans by suggesting we take horse dewormer or ingest bleach when COVID hit, rather than listening to actual scientists.

This con man, election denier, science denier and dementia denier is going to destroy American democracy and the “freedom” we have fought to keep for two and a half centuries. In addition to promising a presidency dedicated to revenge, we can never forget Trump is seeking the nation’s highest office to escape jail time for a litany of crimes, including the insurrection he instigated on January 6.

I admit, I’ve been doom-scrolling Twitter so much this week that I’ve completely ceded my mental health to the once-illegal immigrant Elon Musk. But at least I found this gem:

“It’s no longer about his character. It’s about ours.”

This gets to the heart of what bothers me most about this time in American history. Trump is who he has always been, for anyone who cared to see the truth. It’s the fact that we’re on the brink of electing him again — AFTER watching him instigate a coup to stay in power. We know he concocted The Big Lie, then sent an armed mob to the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to “fight like hell” in a surreal effort to overturn the 2020 election.

Trump continues to lie about the 2020 election, and he has already started lying about 2024, proclaiming he will only accept the results as legitimate if he wins. Polling at this point says it’s a coin toss, prompting political commentator Van Jones to observe of Trump and Harris: “He can be lawless; she has to be flawless.”

Donald Trump brings out the worst in all of us.

Millions of Americans are apparently so bitter and angry that they relish embracing the rage, biases and hatred of “the other” that Trump stokes. Trump pushes not only a hatred of immigrants (News flash: Unless you’re Native American, you or your ancestors are immigrants) but of artists who won’t vote for him, ALL intellectuals (who undermine Trump’s assertion that he’s a genius) and journalists who insist that truth is knowable, rather than whatever Trump deems it to be.

Trump supporters don’t blink when their racist-in-chief rails about “the enemy within,” that he intends to JAIL. This is the actual definition of fascism. Punishing and jailing anyone who criticizes you is Dictatorship 101. And that’s apparently fine with half of this country. Trump is not just THE ugly American, he has remade America in his image.

One neighbor recently displayed Trump yard signs, having not done so in 2020. Passing them daily, all I see are signposts declaring a hatred of immigrants, gays, liberals and journalists. MAGA signs feel threatening — a symbol of hate, maybe even violence against anyone who is not part of the Trump cult.

Trump is NOT a conservative; he is a far-right radical who hates democratic norms and tells us he will demolish democratic freedoms, institutions and education while using his presidential powers to enrich himself and his oligarchs and to institute RETRIBUTION against anyone who stands in his way.

I haven’t even gotten to my sadness for American women. As many as one in five pregnancies can end in miscarriage in this country. Because of Trump ending Roe, women are bleeding out and dying because they can no longer get standard medical care to stop sepsis (and protect future fertility) after a miscarriage. Let alone make decisions about their own bodies.

But I digress. All this is to say that on the eve of the 2024 election, I’m profoundly sad. I want to be a proud American, and I will be, if we finally dump Trump and the hatred he spews daily. If we don’t, I will be devastated for my daughter, for our future and for the decline of democracy and basic human decency.

Even if we do dump Trump, I will wonder how long it will take for the next iteration of populist fascism to pop up amidst our deeply divided and poorly informed electorate.

I’ll sign off with something lighter: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog gets my nod for Best Election Anthem of 2024. While joking with Trump supporters gathered outside Madison Square Garden, Triumph the puppet rallied the crowd to join him in singing “Liberal tears,” a rollicking tune about how freely Trumpers vote against their own self interests merely to “own the libs.” Or whatever. Nothing has to make sense at this fact-free hate fest.

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (“dressed” as an insurrectionist and mocking the MAGA crowd):

“The other side, they’ll talk about record low unemployment, record high stock market, infrastructure, blah, blah, blah. But this election is about more than ‘issues’ that ‘affect us.’ This election is personal! It’s about sticking it to those elitist liberals — those elitists who hate billionaires. But you know what? On Nov. 5, those elitists, they’re gonna be the ones who are crying, and we’re the ones who are gonna be drinking … liberal tears.

“Liberal tears, liberal tears. I love them salty liberal tears. I won’t have Medicare in two years, but at least I’ll know that there’s liberal tears.

“Liberal tears, liberal tears. L-I-B-R-U-L liberal tears. The world’s in the shitter, but I’m frightful and bitter. We’re all throwin’ mud and the oceans are floodin’. And just as a bonus, five billionaires own us. My candidate’s lyin’, the planet is dyin’, but liberals are quiet, so I say, Three Cheers! Hip Hip Hoorey! Cause my dream is to drown in them liberal tears.“

(Warning: Here’s the clip of Triumph, but much like Trump, be forewarned that he’s one crude dog.)