Normalizing Trump’s vile campaign is wrong. And we already made that mistake before.

When I heard Hillary Clinton said ‘We owe him [Trump] an open mind and the chance to lead’ I thought I had lost my mind.

First, because we do not owe Donald Trump anything whatsoever and he owes America much…including taxes. And second, because I realized then and there that we were already on the road to making Trump’s ways an acceptable means to get anything. If you win, your victory is a validation of your methods.

Then came President Obama’s meeting with Trump and the speech. I do not care how pained Obama may have looked or how difficult this is for him. It ain’t going to be a picnic for a lot of people Trump’s campaign scapegoated.

All of the sudden, Trump moved from “lock her up” and “she can’t satisfy her husband” to “we owe her a debt of gratitude.” Notice that the first two statements are not politics as usual. But, yes, let us just unite now.

Obama also improved significantly in Trump’s estimation. In a split second, the “founder of ISIS,” who lied about his birth certificate and is unlikely to have been born in America became a “very good man” Trump is honored to meet with.

I must admit that it’s utterly heartbreaking to see President Obama have to “pass the baton” to a man who questioned his humanity for years.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) November 9, 2016

And that’s just about Obama and Clinton. They both are going to be OK, but they both should be very concerned about the people whose situation and, literally, lives are now in danger due to Trump’s rhetoric.

I have a serious problem with the “unity call” not being called out. Normalizing this is an outrage. While the call for unity may be laudable, it is also a burlesque act, a complete mockery of the justified fear felt by those at the butt of Trump’s attacks, threats, demonization and scapegoating.

I honestly think it is cowardice on the part of Obama and Clinton not to make this quite clear.

Obama and Clinton should say: Trump won, and we will respect the laws of this country, as Trump doesn’t, and conduct a collaborative and productive transition of power, as a democracy does. And we hope Trump always remembers we are a democracy and not an autocracy. But, it is essential to say that we hope he does not govern the way he campaigned, and we want to state as strongly as we possibly can that the way he campaigned is not only illegitimate and despicable, but absolutely immoral, dangerous and repulsive. We should all send the clear message that wining at any cost cannot be tolerated. Trump’s calls for unity now sound hollow because he premised his entire campaign on sowing disunity and hatred and inciting the worse of the dividing sentiments in our country.

We hope America succeeds and, precisely because of that, we hope the vilest of Trump’s bigoted, dividing and hateful policies fail completely.

DISCLAIMER: These are my personal views and do not represent the opinions of my employer, or any other organization.