I think it is about time that I formally thank Donald Trump. Without him, I would hardly ever have a chance to use words like “jingoistic” or “xenophobic”.

Donald Trump will never be president, but he just might be the most dangerous person in America.

Donald Trump speaks only in superlatives. He paints only in broad strokes. He appeals only to the basest elements of the human condition. And as much as I would like to write him off as a buffoon (which he is), as much as I would like to wait him out – wait for his incomprehensible luster to wear off – I am not sure we can afford to wait.

Donald Trump isn’t just fanning the fires of hatred in this country; he is tucking kindling in every nook and cranny of America and then dousing it with gasoline while dancing around with sparklers in both hands.

And yet, there he is at the top of the polls. He’s the lead story on every newscast whenever he opens his disgusting vitriolic maw. But why? How can this be what people (any people) want?

On some level, I guess I understand. People are sick of business as usual in Washington. They are desperate for action. But more than anything, they are scared shitless that the world is changing, and they don’t understand it anymore.

They have spent the last 7 years watching a president that is the definition of calm and nuance be swallowed whole by our binary appetites that have lost all connection to the notions of gray area, compromise and middle-ground. And they have seen the notion of borders and countries take a back seat to doctrines, religions and corporations. We haven’t yet figured out how to wage war against ideas and movements. These things don’t have an address that you can simply wipe off the planet.

When intellect, logic and nuance are shown as impotent to the din of belligerent and overly simplistic saber rattling that has become the calling card to the extremes of all ilks – Democrat, Republican, cleric, minister, blogger and anchorperson – we are surely lost as a people.

It is not by coincidence that we find ourselves in a political reality where a flaxen-coiffed Bond villain and the equivalent of an old man yelling from his porch are considered legitimate candidates.

AND WHAT’S WITH ALL THE FUCKING YELLING!?!

I have always been fond of saying that one of the things I look for in a candidate of any kind is some sign of an active mind. But everywhere I look, I can find little more than an active mouth. Words matter – they matter so much more than we think – but they don’t matter more just because you yell them…or at least they shouldn’t.

And as much as I would like to call Donald Trump stupid, I don’t think he is stupid. I think he is calculating.

If you sit watching your TV and find yourself wondering, “How the hell does he get away with saying the things he says?”, he isn’t talking to you. He is talking to the people that most of us write off as crazy and irrelevant. But I think that Trump has done the math. I think he realizes that in a year where no other candidate is setting the world on fire, all press is good press.

And while it is still very hard for me to imagine a scenario where Trump can win in a general election, I start to think about the climate that he is creating in this country, and I don’t know how any reasonable person can lead under those circumstances. And I don’t see how anything can get better. He’ll keep turning the volume up to 11, and none of us will be able to hear ourselves (or anyone else) think. That’s just how he likes it.

And that is why Donald Trump is the most dangerous person in America.