To defend Donald Trump now must mean you possess an almost base need to make fun of people who dislike him.

He certainly does.

To defend Donald Trump now must mean you have a fundamental disregard for American values.

He certainly does.

To defend Donald Trump now must mean you have you have a depraved indifference to human rights.

He certainly does.

What justification is there to support a man who is willing to turn the American military on the American people? For Trump, unleashing the military feeds a perhaps psychotic lust for power, which he instead suggests is affirming law and order.

When Americans witness overwhelming police and military force mowing down people who have no chance to defend themselves (Tiananmen Square, 1989, or Tahrir Square, 2011) in the name of, yes, law and order, we recoil at the idea that a political leader would seek to silence fellow citizens in such brutal ways. We call it un-American. We demand our government respond appropriately. We remind ourselves such bloodbaths wouldn’t happen here.

They might.

Earlier this evening, the president did not object to protesters being tear gassed and forcefully removed from an area around the White House so he could walk to a nearby church, take hold of a Bible and raise it as if it were a prized possession. He also told the country he’d mobilize “thousands and thousands” of military personnel if states governors didn’t bring in the National Guard to restore, you got it, law and order.

This is the same Donald Trump who has said nothing over the past four days that might have demonstrated leadership and responsibility. He cares nothing about America’s racial divide. He is morally empty.

Are you?