It`s been three years since Donald Trump descended the golden ecalator at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President of the United States.

This wasn`t a god descending Mount Olympus to impart his heavenly wisdom with mere mortals. Hardly. In Trump`s Presidential Announcement Speech he vilified Mexican immigrants, referring to them as rapists and criminals. In the intervening months and years his vulgar, coarse and hateful rhetoric hasn`t mellowed.

I don`t expect every president to have the eloquence of a Kennedy, the genteel charm of a Reagan, or the professorial authority of an Obama, but I do expect a president to exercise a modicum of civility.

But that ain`t how Trump rolls, he traffics in conspiracy theories, engages in racist tropes and sprinkles his speeches with obscenities.

Trump cultists excuse his buffoonery and spitefulness by saying that it`s just Trump being Trump. They counsel us to look past his shtick and consider the substance of the man. But beneath the shtick there`s no substance or gravitas. Underneath Trump`s clownish veneer beats the heart of an authoritarian who delights in demeaning and degrading everyone who doesn`t go along with his patently racist executive orders and mean-spirited tweets.

Trump`s hateful rhetoric in his speeches and tweets aren`t just a harmless quirk that we can ignore. His divisive, racist and vulgar rhetoric cheapens the office of the president of the United States, demoralizes the electorate, weakens the rule of law, and ignites racial tensions.

Woe is unto us if we excuse or normalize Trump`s noxious rhetoric, it`s incumbent upon patriots to denounce his every racist statement and every hateful tweet.

Most importantly come 2020 we must vote him out of office, and retire him to Mar-a-Lago where he can vent his nonsense and racism all he wants to without having a national platform.