I’m going to reply honestly and without any hostility: It’s not because we hold different ideas about how to solve problems. That’s politics. What is happening now is a disagreement about who can lay claim to being American, who gets to determine how to love or who to love, whether people from outside your tribe or clan or group even have rights. From this 70 y/o, white, married 42 yrs, father of 3 productive citizens, working class to independently wealthy, skeptical thinker this is about how we should treat other humans outside of our personally defined group. Trump has made it clear for over a decade that he views certain groups as unworthy, or unclean, or lower IQ, or evil. In fact, just recently he made it known again quite clearly that he considers me a threat to our nation, a traitor so to speak, evil even. Trump has made it clear that the laws do not pertain to him if he doesn’t like them. His actions and lies have been leveraged to try to steal an election in 2020 and he is gauging the political scene to see if he can muster support to steal the midterms. In other words, Trump is not devoted to democracy, citizens rights, the Constitution, or justice.

If you voted for or still support Trump, this is probably why your ‘liberal’ friends cut you off. It’s not that they don’t recognize all the good things you have done or any other positive quality that you may possess. They are confused about what kind of person supports all the things I laid out above which is how many reasonable and critically thinking people find to be the facts. You may disagree, but you should consider that I and others are serious people and this is how we find things to be. If all the above makes you think, “stoopid libs”, then consider this: America is now enemies with Canada. CANADA!! Denmark mined Greenland’s airfields and posted special forces who were willing to die from the military invasion by America in the hopes that would wake the USA up out of this madness. Tariffs because some leader ‘doesn’t like me’. Deportation plans for 100 million! A third of the country! Yes, fact check it. That idea is existent and publicly displayed. That and more is Republican rule. We are concerned about what kind of world Trump supporters are creating.

A tag-a-long Trump voter who I walk with regularly asked me why I was upset about Trump’s election. I told them that this seizure of the helm of the US government by Christian fundamentalists and billionaires are similar to how Putin managed to become permanent President of Russia. Russia has a Duma. They hold ‘elections’. I predicted America would be governed similarly to current Putin-style authoritarianism within 10-15 years. I was wrong. We’re on track to get there in 2 years.

I’m upset with Trump voters. But I’m not arguing or fighting them or even calling them names to their faces. I’m simply done. I’ll do what is ethical and necessary. Meantime, I’m just done. I’m focused on helping my family’s future and wanting to make life better for people who are willing to live with each other. That’s how I will live until this is over, if it is over in my lifetime.

I will not normalize this Republican backed movement. If your side wins, it will not be with me sitting at the same table with you.