I have been seeing a large number of Odyssey articles this week covering the difficult lives of college conservatives who support Trump and get a ton of backlash throughout their campuses. While I feel a tinge of empathy, (being a lifelong nerd and constantly being ridiculed for it will do that to you) I can't help but express how foolish you sound to me.

The president you like/love/tolerate created his following by being a bully, and now you're trying to tell me you're afraid of getting bullied?

That very same president likely colluded with a foreign adversary to undermine our democracy and all of the rights that countless men and women have died to protect and you talk about how you support him because he puts America first?

You support a president with an incredibly low approval rating, who stokes xenophobia and has a clear aversion to condemning white nationalists while you spout things like "Build the Wall" and "Lock Her Up" and countless other Trump-inspired slogans that are incredibly unconstitutional.

You're backing a party that the NRA has deeply planted their seed into while we are being slaughtered by automatic weapons on our campuses, in our nightclubs and in our movie theaters across the nation.

Our generation will directly feel the impacts of climate change and yet you follow a President who denies it's the reality. Why, because he promised your Dad he'd get his job at the coal mine back?

You say things like "I don't trust the media because they are bold-faced liars." Well, I highly recommend you put down the remote you loathe so much and pick up a history book so you can see how the greatest nations have been taken over by ruthless leaders who at first, you guessed it, discredited the mainstream media outlets.

I hear all of the time that Trump is making America great again, but I'm afraid I just don't see the evidence to support that. He has pulled out of treaties in favor of Vladimir Putin, he boasts economic growth and job growth numbers that are direct results of the Obama administration and OH YEAH, he ushered in the LONGEST PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IN HISTORY which directly impacted millions of Americans (800,000 workers plus their dependents) for the worse.

What I'm really getting at here is that if you want to be respected, stand for something that garners respect. If you tell me you support Trump because you are pro-life well I guess I understand that, but you could also back pretty much any other Republican who is less toxic than Trump and shares your conservative values.

I will say if you are being physically threatened, then hell yeah call the police and file a report because fuck Americans causing physical harm to other Americans. But if you are really trying to tell me that you deserve to be respected and not challenged by other minds, then find a candidate that respects the people and principles of our nation. Believe me, the Trump Hill is not the one you want to die on.