My fellow Americans, a plea from a US expat living in Britain: please don’t ruin our country by voting for Trump

Ask 10 different people what it means to be American, and you’re going to get 10 wildly different answers. You’ll hear about inspiration and aspiration, equality and freedom. You’ll hear words of blind patriotism, mulish pride and unbridled optimism. Right or wrong, for better or for worse, it’s these wide-ranging, arbitrary concepts that form the basis of our very real, collective identity.

But in a few short days, that self-awareness, that pride and that sense of identity may well tumble into oblivion. If we don’t stand up for what we believe in soon, the progress that has always defined us as a people will shrivel up and die.

We’re talking, of course, about Tuesday’s presidential election.

This has without doubt been the single most exhausting campaign cycle in living memory. For over a year, we’ve been forced to endure endless scandals, shameless mudslinging and relentless animosity. And with that in mind, it’s little wonder so many of us have come to hate the two candidates vying for America’s top job.

In one corner, we’re faced with a career politician entangled deep within the roots of what is widely considered a broken and shamelessly bureaucratic system of governance. Hillary Clinton is fierce, calculating and almost fatally non-relatable. To many Americans, she’s the living embodiment of a monotonous and uninspiring status quo.

That’s why so many people are flirting with the idea of voting against her. But what’s the alternative vision lurking behind door number two?

For months now, Donald Trump has been masquerading as the defiant, anti-establishment candidate many Americans are so desperately craving. He’s proven the supreme master of categorically meaningless grandstanding, repeatedly drilling home self-serving and outdated notions of economic sovereignty and isolationism. He stands ostentatiously against everything that’s foreign to middle-class white America. And to a worryingly large slice of the electorate, that makes him this year’s true defender of American ideals.

But let’s get one thing straight right now: Donald Trump is not a true American.

Donald Trump is a little man who endorses religious bigotry. He incites political violence, condemns equality and openly questions the patriotism of Americans based solely on their parentage.

He’s threatened to ban freedom of information. He’s promised to deny countless child refugees access to the American dream because of how they’ve been raised to worship God. He openly mocks the disabled, and repeatedly degrades African Americans for pursuing racial equality. Worse yet, the man thinks women are nothing but walking, talking vaginas whose sole purpose in life is to fulfil his unwanted sexual advances.

America is a land divided, and we’ve all got very different notions of our country’s identity. But Donald Trump stands firmly against every single principle that we as a nation hold dear. He spits in the face of liberty, treats constitutional freedoms like discretionary privileges and has openly questioned the nature of democracy itself. This is a man who scorns the constitution, vilifies the republic and mocks our very way of life.

Can you honestly look your daughter in the eye on Wednesday morning and explain to her why you’ve just voted for a man who thinks she’s an insignificant piece of meat? Can you explain to your friends why you’ve voted for a leader who judges a man’s worth by the God he chooses to worship? More important still, can you look at yourself in the mirror and feel good about the fact that you’ve offered this disgusting bigot a golden opportunity to trample all over your own personal freedoms?

In the perfect world, this year’s presidential election wouldn’t be a vote between the lesser of two evils – and to be honest, it really isn’t. For all her faults, Hillary Clinton is a talented and committed public servant who is more than capable of safely navigating America through the harrowing trials and tribulations that lay before us. A vote for Hillary Clinton is at best a vote in the name of economic equality and stability – at worst, a vote to safeguard whatever it is you love about this country.

So please, America, do the right thing. You need to vote for Hillary Clinton. And even if it stings a little, remember that you’re not doing it for her. You’re doing it because you love your country, because you respect yourself and because you know what it truly means to be an American.