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What if we could look at the election as something more than two candidates vying for supremacy but instead what they represent?

It truly is a difference between democracy and fascism.

It is not hyperbole, not “fake news.” No one is “weaponizing” the legal system against TFG (The Former Guy). His legal entanglements were of his own doing.

Do you want a servant leader or someone whose only interest is power and self-service? Do you want someone whose words are fanatical and threatening or unifying in a positive way?

For years, I have thought that TFG would be an empty shell without his followers and adherents filling him up with their energy and support. For those who still, after everything he has said and done, plan to vote for him, ask yourself why. What values of yours does he reflect? If you think beyond your personal needs, which candidate will best contribute to a better world for the next generations and the planet as a whole?

Although no one knows for certain what goes on in the recesses of another person’s mind, it is clear what TFG intends. His words betray him. His jumbled words. His nonsensical words. His inciting, not insightful words. His hateful words. His self-aggrandizing words. His praise-for-dictators words. His pseudo-Christian-turned Christo-fascist words. His sexist, racist, xenophobic words. His assault against women words.

Look, I need to work and pay bills and taxes like anyone else reading my words. I also need to think beyond my own needs. I need to think about my descendants and the world I will leave them. I need to consider the impact of climate change. I need to consider the rights of women to their body sovereignty, not necessitating by law that they become unwilling incubators.

I need to think about safety from gun violence anywhere in the world. I need to think about the people who experience racism simply because of the amount of melanin in their skin and those who experience persecution because of their country of origin. I need to think about those facing violence anywhere in their lives.

Nothing gives anyone the right to deliberately cause harm. One candidate embodies the controlling, restrictive rhetoric he spouts nearly every time he opens his mouth. One candidate professes to make the world a better place and continue to be a president for all in this country, not just those who vote for him.

If you can’t see the difference between these two ideologies, and either choose to vote for the one who says he will be a dictator on day one and that he guarantees retribution against anyone who dares to challenge him, or sit this one out since you are concerned about President Biden’s age, you will be contributing to a devastatingly dramatic change in the governance of this country. In my 65 years, I have never been this terrified of the outcome of an election.

Remember: this is the dude who praises the “late great Hannibal Lecter” and spoke about deciding if he would rather get electrocuted by a boat battery as the boat sinks or get eaten by a shark. Those are two of the most recent absurdities. This is the guy who couldn’t remember the name of the doctor who he said deemed him cognitively superior. It is Ronny Jackson, by the way.

I was watching a local newscast while I was at the gym this morning. The reporter was interviewing people from my county since it is a highly contested region here in Pennsylvania. Pat Poprik, the Bucks County GOP Chair, gave the typical vague answers to how she thinks Trump could do a better job if reelected. She had nothing concrete that he could do except “cut spending” and used terms like “stuff” and “things” to describe what the party is doing to improve conditions.

She cites the party line boogie man of immigration and refers to those who came here to flee hardship as “them,” as if they are not human. I found myself wanting to shout at the TV but since I was in a public place, I growled a little and pedaled faster on the bike.

What’s it going to be, folks? What will your role be in shaping the world for the next generations? Mine is to be an outspoken co-creator of the world I want to see.

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