The 2024 election season is upon us and some Americans are already mailing in their ballots. This week, as so many weeks have been this year, was full of political news of the type that should be working on the hearts and minds of American voters, in particular those who inexplicably remain inclined to vote for MAGA Republicans. From where I am sitting, most of the news was damaging, or should be damaging to the MAGA movement.

Hurricane Helene’s disastrous course through the American South wreaked unprecedented damage in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. Donald Trump headed to Valdosta, GA for a photo op as another way to make everything about him at a time when first responders, utility workers, civil servants, aid agencies, and citizens of those areas need help rather than a self aggrandizing political stunt. Trump and MAGA Republicans, as is their wont, began to lie and spread misinformation about the current administration’s response claiming that President Biden was failing to do anything or not communicating with governors. Multiple Republicans said that the lies and misinformation are untrue and unhelpful, yet Trump and those of his ilk continue to lie.

The Vice Presidential debate showed America that Vance is a liar, albeit a much more polished one than his boss. He lied repeatedly about there being “25 million illegal aliens” in America today in a xenophobic ploy to scapegoat undocumented immigrants as the root of all our nation’s ills. It is a playbook that has been in use at various times since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. According to Pew Research however, the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. peaked at 12.2 million in 2022, yet the MAGA movement has been duped by intentional lies. Trump and Vance made the ticket’s desire to lie with impunity quite clear when they demanded that there be no fact checking during the debate and then again when Vance whined about being fact checked. The former, getting CBS to obey Trump in advance, is an authoritarian tactic according to Yale historian Dr. Timothy Snyder and CBS fell for it. Vance also went on a rant multiple times about censorship being a danger to democracy. He then made it clear that what he meant by that was that intentionally spreading misinformation is now being quashed in certain places like social media. In other words, “we want to lie and intentionally mislead the public, and you won’t let us.” Perhaps he was saying this because of the pending legal case against the Trump-Vance campaign for spreading misinformation about the legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, OH. I for one hope they are held accountable for bearing false witness against their Haitian neighbors and engaging in stochastic terrorism.

Vane also referenced the fact that in Finland there are lower rates of mental health issues, in particular depression, and noted that there is a mental health crisis in America. Lost on Vance, and other conservatives however, is the fact that things like stable housing, universal health care, debt free higher education, and food security, all help mitigate depression. Finland, like other Scandinavian countries, has a robust social safety net that protects citizens from the kinds of governmentally imposed calamities that Americans experience because Republicans would rather give tax cuts to wealthy people and cut business regulations rather than have a social safety net. My family is experiencing this RIGHT NOW because my sister, a nurse, lost her job and health insurance while recovering from cancer while still in need of multiple treatments and surgeries. She may lose her home, car, and everything else due to a lack of universal health care. Meanwhile, JD Vance, whose family received public assistance, says the GOP simply has to have better messaging so Americans will trust them. We can’t trust a campaign headed by a criminal, serial sexual predator whose plans have always been about helping the wealthy increase their wealth. His number two, Vance, has strong ties to the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, and therefore is part of the plan to cut social programs that would help those in need. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and those like techno-fascist Peter Thiel who have helped him get to where he is. Like Trump, he craves the kind of power that dictators have, and he doesn’t care what he has to say or do to get it — even if it means being the running mate for a man he utterly despises.

Further damage to MAGA world and Donald Trump specifically was the release of Jack Smith’s evidence by Judge Tanya Chutkan. In the evidence it says that Trump resorted to crime in order to stay in power with the aid of multiple private citizens. I watched quite a bit of commentary from various news outlets after the release and the general consensus was that Smith made a strong case that Trump was acting as a private citizen, rather than in an official presidential capacity, in pushing the Big Lie and initiating the January 6th insurrection (something Vance pretended didn’t happen during the debate.) The documents point out that Trump complained that Pence was “too honest” when then VP Pence refused to go along with the coup. More damaging still, was Trump’s reply when he found out that Pence was in danger from the violent mob he sent to storm the Capitol. “So what,” Trump said when told. That’s precisely the kind of response one should expect from an unrepentant malignant narcissist who only cares about himself. There is nothing Christlike in Donald Trump despite him being propped up by Christian nationalists and white evangelicals.

My prayer is that Trump and all of his enablers who have committed crimes will be held accountable and never see public office again. There is literally no excuse for a Christian, or a person of any other faith, to vote for Trump and JD Vance. Their entire platform is of hatred, fomenting division through misinformation and threats of violence, xenophobia and racism, all in the name of the rich getting richer, democracy eroding, while the biosphere collapses. There is no excuse for enabling Trump by voting for him. He stands for everything that Jesus stood against, and so do the Republicans who do his bidding. So far, Trump supporting Christians have failed the test. It’s not too late to repent.

For Trump-Vance supporters to contemplate.