I’ve tried to be fair in assessing policy — but Trump policy is baffling. Researchers at NBC News have cataloged his positions on major issues since the start of the campaign. They have found 19 different positions on immigration reform; 15 different positions on banning Muslims; nine different positions on how to defeat the Islamic State group; eight different positions on raising the minimum wage; seven different tax plans; and eight different strategies for dealing with the national debt. And the more or less consistent persistent positions are the scariest — more nukes and denigration of the president of the United States coupled with admiration for the Russian dictator.

It is intolerable that any American citizen would encourage one of the world’s leading enemies of freedom, Vladimir Putin, to interfere in our election; and for a presidential candidate to do it is tantamount to treason against our democracy — and at a time when the same Putin is bombing hospitals and relief aid in Aleppo (a distinct failure of Obama policy). Trump didn’t even know Russia had invaded the Ukraine.

There is also the question of Trump’s insensitivity to human decency in the treatment of fellow citizens who happen to be minorities. Famously, Trump has relied on Twitter to unleash a steady stream of juvenile attacks. By The New York Times’ running account, he has insulted 282 people, places and things — usually multiple times. That is to say nothing of the half of the population who still do not enjoy the equal rights that many politicians forget, especially Republicans, when they speak about a devotion to our Constitution.