..is that Trump has ENDED ‘civil discourse.’ Not only does he never engage in it himself - preferring violently nasty late-night text rants - he doesn’t respect it from others. He takes it as a sign of weakness. He respects only the strong, as his willingness to suck up to world tyrants in Moscow, Beijing, Pyongyang, Riyadh and the like amply demonstrates.

Secondly, Trump is engaging in a kind of conversion of U.S. democratic processes to neo-fascist one along the lines of a Putin, or at least an Orban. Repress the media, eliminate immigration, confuse the public, harrass real or perceived ‘enemies,’ and play to the mob. Why would I engage in ‘civil discourse’ with a Hitler?

Which brings me to Graboyes and his ‘suggestions,’ which seem to revolve around accommodating Trump. ‘Don’t say this about him,’ Graboyes remonstrates, ‘Don’t be mean (‘nasty’ is the Orange Tyrant’s favorite word),’ ‘don’t swear,’ and ‘Don’t use the ‘f(ascist)’ or the ‘n(azi)’ words. Accommodate. Be nice. Maybe he will let us keep some fragment of our democracy!’

Well, screw that. My Uncle fought the Nazis. I don’t accomodate them, I don’t work with them, and I’m not gonna be nice to them.

Trump is the ENEMY. And that’s that. This has gone past the point of ‘civility’ - and maybe, ‘elections.’