What do you do when your President’s a racist?

It’s a question I never imagined ever having to ask myself.  Yet, today there is absolutely no question in my mind that President Donald Trump is a racist.

Just writing that and reading it back to myself sickens and nauseates me.

I am not new to the disdain for Donald Trump party.

My thoughts about this feckless leader of America have been uneasy from the first days of his election as our nation’s President.

Despite my opposition to him, I felt obligated to give him a chance as America’s President.

In fact, I argued across at the home of Sir Richard Branson, across his dinner table, for over an hour as to why he and others, including myself, should give Trump the benefit of the doubt.

I encouraged many of my friends, including my own children, to give Trump an opportunity to prove us all wrong.  That, perhaps, the Office of President would transform him in some necessary way to be the leader America, and the world, needed him to be.

It was my hope that those surrounding Trump, apart from the likes of Steve Bannon, would not just temper Trump, but would create a space in which he could learn to not just act Presidential, but be Presidential.

I was wrong.

President Donald Trump is a racist.

He is an anti-Semite.  He is a misogynist.

He is a threat to America.  To Democracy.  And, to the world.

I have many, many friends who supported Donald Trump. 

I had many friends who supported Hillary Clinton. 

I chose not to support either Trump or Clinton.

For those who voted for Donald Trump I know it wasn’t an endorsement of Donald Trump as racist, anti-Semite or misogynist.

They had legitimate reasons for voting for him and I respect those reasons.

I also know that many of them are as appalled as I am by who he has revealed himself to be.

Even more so disappointed that he cannot actually be the President he promised them he would be. 

Incapable of focusing on the job he was elected to do.  Unable to be the leader they wanted him to be.

I don’t speak for them.  Or anybody else.

I speak for myself.

But, I also speak as the father of two children who cannot accept that a man like this will be allowed to continue to be the President of the United States of America.

Two children who see in this man nothing they believe in about the world that they live in or the beliefs that define their young lives.

I am no longer able, or willing, to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt.

There is a red line that human beings cross.

Donald Trump may be President but he is a human being.

That red line has been crossed by Donald Trump, the human being.

It has been crossed by Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America.

So, what do you do when your President’s a racist?

You focus on what must be done to remove a racist President.

It is now time for members of Congress – particularly Republicans in the House and Senate – to disavow this racist President.

Not just to disavow them but to join with their colleagues across the aisle to determine how to remove him from office in a way that is consistent with the Rule of Law and respects the Constitution of the United States of America.

The more Republicans that publicly disavow this President the weaker his credibility.  The weaker his capacity to govern.  The weaker his justification for remaining in office.

This is not, despite the media’s best efforts to make it so, a Republican “problem.” 

It is not a Democratic “opportunity”.

This is a threat to American democracy and both parties, and its leaders, must do what America needs them to do.

Lead America.

Stand together to remove this threat to America.

If Donald Trump won’t leave office because Republicans have abandoned him then it is time to take the next logical step and impeach this President.

A President is in the White House who is a racist.  An anti-Semite.  A misogynist.

If all of these things are not impeachable offenses in America then we have lost our reason for being.

Donald Trump may be the President of the United States of America.

Donald Trump should not be the President of the United States of America.

It’s time to tell Donald Trump “You’re Fired!”