In my essay “The Cult of Hate,” I wrote about the long list of groups of people that I’ve been taught since I was a little one to fear, suspect, abhor, accuse, dislike, battle if necessary, and kill if I must. Most of the time, those groups were identified as outsiders, foreigners from a country or region where we were waging war, and they presented a clear danger to the United States of America and, in turn, us as Americans. During my seventy-five years, those groups have included citizens of the Soviet Bloc, Chinese communists, North Koreans, North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese but the communist kind (the corrupt dictatorial South Vietnamese were okay), Cubans as in those who supported Fidel Castro, any group who revolted against a “friendly” government of ours, anyone who we called a communist (but not a government that was right-wing dictatorial because well, they were not communists), and anyone who our government said we should fear, suspect, abhor, accuse, dislike, battle if necessary, and kill if I must because we were taught that’s what we must do.

Donald Trump, the contender for the highest office in the land, has his own ideas of enemies, the enemies within that we should fear, suspect, abhor, accuse, dislike, battle if necessary, and imprison if necessary. People, like those he called “radical left lunatics’’ who he swears will “disrupt the election, “it should be very easily handled by — if necessary, by National Guard, or if necessary, by the military.” Or the time Trump called “Schiff and Pelosi ‘enemy from within.’” I mean, this Madman sure seems to know who the “enemy from within” is.  I’ve seen this before. Anyone who disagrees with the hateful and fearmongering rhetoric of wannabe fascists is subject to targeting.

Of course, this list is on top of the immigrants who eat cats and dogs, take over housing projects, and rape and pillage American women and children. Throw in any person of color, LGBTQ+ groups, Democrats, Socialists, or Free Thinkers, and trust me, the list is long. It seems to include anyone who might question why the f*ck would half this country vote for a man with a long track record of mongering everyone and contributing nothing to the positivity of this world we live in.

So, it got me thinking more about that half of this country and how and why they would stand by and support all the threats of being Dictator on Day One, siccing law enforcement and the military on his perceived enemies, firing everyone in government who doesn’t suck up to Herr Trump, and refusing to help any state that doesn’t follow his big ass down the rabbit hole.

And it came to me in a flash. The real enemy within. It’s not Donald Trump we should fear; it’s our next-door neighbor who suddenly throws up a giant American flag during a hotly contest campaign season, and you know what that’s code for. It ain’t that he’s suddenly super patriotic. It makes me wonder about the family member who trolls you with Trump memes, the enthusiastic Trumpers who shout at you from the overpasses, and the passionate 75-year-old grandmother who vomits one conspiracy theory after another without breathing hard, and you realize she’s serious. These people are more than happy, obsessed even, to defy reason, logic, facts, and reality to vote for a man who couldn’t care less for them.

It sounds terrible to call people I know and, in a few cases, care about the enemy within. You will accuse me of the same thing that I blame Trump. Slandering and threatening (I’m not threatening anyone) our fellow Americans. But here’s the difference. It was the same reason that I have fought against the worst that America has to offer since the sixties: the injustice, the oppression of people of color and other groups who only fought for equal rights and to be free from the shackles of an unjust system. In this case, you can add stupidity and ignorance that threaten our political way of governance with all its flaws. We’ve been here before, and I would be delinquent if I didn’t raise more than a few challenges about what’s ahead. If you vote for this Madman despite all the evidence that disqualifies him for the job, then the problem is not him but you.

Harsh, I know. And I get that some people who are staunch Republicans are going to vote party over the country because they are loyal to a fault despite the evident consequences. Then, some stand to gain power and money if Trump wins: Politicians, business heads, right-wing, anti-abortion, anti-LGBT+, Christian nationalists, and anti-democratic white supremacy groups. Then there are the low-information, celebrity-loving, conspiracy-loving, and those looking for the strongman who will protect them from the others. There is an even longer list of people willing to trade off the Constitution for some magical unreality where the others don’t include them, but maybe people like me. People who are willing to stand by and watch the wholesale rounding up of their neighbors for imprisonment and/or deportation because that’s worked so well before, and we can be sure that no one innocent will suffer. Oops, our mistake. Sorry.

The truth is that the only enemy within we must care about is us. The us that is willing not to stop the Madman. The us that is willing to ignore all the evident signals and still vote for the Madman. The us who will not vote because we’ve convinced ourselves that our vote doesn’t matter instead of admitting we’re lazy or ignorant or both. The us who can’t bring ourselves to call out our family, friends, and neighbors for being ready and able to ignore not only the United States Constitution but also us, their fellow families, friends, and neighbors while shouting that they love us and the United States of America.

Take all that in for a moment: the Enemy within is us.