Vote against every candidate who echoes or enables Donald Trump's fabricated claims about American schools and children. At a recent rally, Trump told crowds that Democratic policies allow public schools to secretly perform gender-reassignment surgeries on minors without parental consent. That claim is a flat-out lie. No such policy exists anywhere in the United States, at any level of government.
This is not a policy disagreement. A former president is manufacturing grotesque falsehoods to incite fear and hatred, and a political movement has organized itself around accepting those lies without question. World leaders, allies and adversaries alike, are watching this unfold and drawing conclusions about American stability and credibility. The damage to our standing abroad is not abstract. It is measurable and ongoing.
The upcoming election is a direct referendum on whether fabricated outrage gets rewarded with governing power. I will be voting accordingly, and I am asking every official on my ballot to stand clearly against this brand of paranoid demagoguery. The choice is between democratic accountability and collective surrender to one man's fever dream.