Nowhere does the Bible mention apples as the forbidden fruit. And the location of the Garden of Eden – after centuries of searching – has never been found.

I would argue the closest we have come to finding that blessed place is here – in the United States. An imperfect country with imperfect people that – somehow – created a more perfect union which has elevated more people of more nationalities than any other society in human history. Yet we are on the verge of throwing it all away.

Why?

Let’s start with what isn’t driving this. It isn’t about Trump’s likeability, and it isn’t about his ability to lead. Many of his supporters will readily volunteer that they are not voting for Trump, the person. Which is not surprising. Since, over time, Trump has:

• joined no less than six different political parties;
• declared bankruptcy four times;
• been married three times, and slept with an adult film star (that is, a prostitute paid to have sex on film) while his third wife was pregnant;
• been found by a jury to have sexually assaulted a woman in a department store dressing room;
• been captured on tape discussing women’s genitalia in the same vein;
• blatantly lied about legal Haitian migrants being illegal, and then lied about them eating pets – knowing that these lies would result in, at a minimum, threats of violence. Before recently leading a MAGA crowd chant of “get them out, get them out” at a political rally;
• earned 30 plus fraud convictions (and counting);
• formally invoked his Fifth Amendment right against criminal self-incrimination multiple times under oath;
• personally profited from running for President by shilling Bibles, watches, electronic superhero cards (featuring him), sneakers, and his sons’ crypto business;
• been disavowed by virtually every senior official Trump chose to serve in his prior administration, including his Secretary of Defense, his Attorney General, his Secretary of State, his Chief of Staff, his National Security Advisor, and his Vice President;
• characterized the national disgrace that is January 6^th as a day of “love”;
• demanded that the broadcasting licenses of ABC, CBS, and others be revoked;
• refused to release his medical records (despite being almost 80 years old);
• refused to release his tax returns (despite having many relationships with foreign financial interests); and
• pledged to strip our military of its leadership by firing the generals who followed their oath to the Constitution – and, by extension, to us.

What then, are so many Trump voters looking to when supporting a man they neither like nor trust? Let’s dig a little deeper.

Many of these voters now argue that they would prefer a better candidate then Trump but have no choice in this election because Harris’ policies are so bad. This argument, however, rests on the notion that it makes sense to vote for a person so fundamentally flawed that he cannot be trusted to rationally implement any policy because you disagree with his opponent’s policies. Which is an argument that crumbles of its own weight.

Tepid Trump supporters also argue that – well – after all, they are not inviting him to their child’s wedding. They are picking him to be President. But in this instance, those two different things are effectively the same thing. Because while narcissism, relentless dishonesty and grift in a guest could well detract from your child’s wedding, those very same defects in a President will almost certainly (and directly) endanger your child’s future. In very short order.

Leaving what? In some 2024 electoral races, the culture war is a real issue. But not the presidential one, because Trump is now so unhinged as to render it irrelevant as to him.

Inflation? I get it. Prices have gone up, and it is still shocking two plus years on to go to the supermarket.

But I do value some things more than less expensive groceries. Like being able to hire and fire politicians, including Presidents. Having elections where the losing party concedes. Having news outlets that can disagree with the party in power without fear of punishment,  Having an Army whose leadership is loyal to the Constitution, and not the will of one man. And having a President who stands for something greater than him or herself.

This is not our first fight to defend that country. My father was part of a generation that bled for America in WWII. During which General George S. Patton – a controversial, courageous, and very successful American commander – addressed the men of the United States Third Army just before the Allied invasion of Europe in June 1944. That Army – his Army –was readying for a ferocious battle that would determine the trajectory of this country and the world. They were young men who put it all on the line and paid a very high price. By the end of the war most combat soldiers had been wounded, many killed, and all had the fabric of their lives changed for the rest of their lives.

Here is some of what Patton told them.

“There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON’T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, ‘Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.’ No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, ‘Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!'”

We are all sinners. But not all sins are the same.

Those who vote for Trump (or help him by not voting at all) will be asked many questions that they will have to answer. Not by me, but by those whom they love. Who will ask why they would not see and hear the things they literally saw and actually heard.

What will Trumpists and those who still can’t figure this out say to their loved ones twenty years on? How will they justify their unwillingness to look beyond empty taglines? Or explain that they had “no choice” but to vote for a man that Trump’s own Chief of Staff described as the most flawed human being he had ever met. How will they rationalize contorting a grotesque parody of democracy into “patriotism”? How will they atone for denying their children and grandchildren what they had, and so casually discarded? That is, the right to participate in what had been the greatest experiment in democracy in human history. An experiment that stood, in part, on the forgotten shoulders of the young men who fought, bled, and died in Geroge Patton’s Third Army. As well as the many other Americans who had sacrificed their all before that war. And have since.

For cheaper groceries? To preserve single sex bathrooms? Because Haitians (weren’t) eating pets? Because a tiny fraction of stupid parents stupidly agreed to let their children take hormone blockers? Because they (Trump’s supporters) were too busy to separate smug simplicity from authentic patriotism, and refused to believe that a liar really intended to act on his lies? America abandoned its birthright for that?

Eden may never have been an actual place. But two fundamental ideas underlying it are real, and part of the firmament upon which humankind rests. One is our will. Just as Biblical Eden was lost by the choices of those who lived in it, we can choose to keep or lose the blessings of this country. The other, related, idea is a rather unforgiving one. That with choice comes accountability. And some sins, once chosen, cannot be undone.