I have a lot to say about the election, but I’ll restrict it to one thought today:

Every single American who voted for Donald Trump either doesn’t believe him to be a sexist, racist, corrupt man, or each decided that those values are less important than other issues.

It is now our job to convince them, as quickly as possible, why those qualities make him unfit for public office. Indeed, why those qualities are un-American. Doing so may require frank, difficult, patient discussion. I argue we do so, though, from a position of strength. America’s core values are on our side. Here are two quotes which define America’s very essence, and a third containing the most important life advice ever given.

From The Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This is the very mission statement of America. Equality came first and must always come first.

From “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, 1883:

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome

People know this poem better from the later line, “Give me your tired, your poor,/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” as the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. This, the most iconic symbol of America, implores us to be a country proudly displaying “world-wide welcome.” We are a nation of immigrants, not one race or one religion.

Finally, John 13:34:

I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you.

Do promises to increase our torture of captured enemies show love? Does talk of banning Muslim immigration? Does the failure to reject the endorsement of the KKK? Does mocking a disabled reporter?

Jesus gave us no other commandment. We must place that above all others. Above the economy. Above which factories may or may not move where. Above tax plans and red hats and Mexico, China, Russia, and a hundred other things. Love.