When you vote on November 6, don’t be fooled into thinking that this election is about the candidates whose names are printed on the ballot.  There will be only one headline on November 7.  The nation will either embrace or repudiate Trumpism.  You are being asked only a single question: “Which side are you on?”

The choices are no longer Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal.   The GOP we once knew, defined by ideology and policy, no longer exists.   Now there is only Trump and anti-Trump. 

The choice is between an ethnic nationalism hunkered down behind a wall, and an open society that values pluralism and diversity.  It is the choice between a moral vacuum in which the ends justify the means, and a political culture in which we demand honesty and decency from our leaders.  It is the choice between ignorance and learning, bombastic bullying and respectful dialog, all-consuming ego and empathetic compassion, a narrative of hate and a narrative of hope.

Republican primary voters already have made their choice.  All but a handful of Republicans in Congress already have made their choice.   So now it’s up to you.

If you stayed home in 2016, disaffected by politics in general or Hillary in particular, you in effect voted for Trump.   Now is the chance to atone.  This time there are no excuses.

Max Boot, life-long GOP partisan and former editor of the Wall Street Journal op-ed page, argues in his new book that Americans must “vote against all Republicans.”   For many of us, this requires realigning our very sense of self.   I have always defined myself as a non-partisan rationalist, voting for person and policy, not party.  Not this time.  There will not be a single vote on my ballot under the GOP column.  

Which side are you on?