The choice isn’t just between candidates. It’s between a society where facts and laws matter and human beings have basic dignity or a purposefully decaying country where fascists keep us imprisoned in conspiracy theories and petty, murderous feuds while plundering everything.

This moment with Trump, these past few years, have been disastrously bad with countless incompetencies and cruelties and unnecessary tragedies.

But it’s only going to get worse if we don’t reject this madness and get to the hard and necessary work beyond Trump.

I keep trying to warn people. Reality is malleable and for Trumpism to continue, whether by victory or plunder, is to dedicate this country to a murderous and self-ruinous alternate reality.

Yes, Trump and his base peddle obvious lies. But this election is about making them real

Make no mistake. This election is the beginning of a bigger fight. Defeating Trump doesn’t fix the problems he embodies. But it’s a choice between fighting the infection and embracing it in totality and allowing it to wash over us.

A win, legitimate or otherwise, is a surrender.