1. It’s Tuesday, December 8, 2015.

2. I’ve been wrestling all morning with how to respond to the latest Donald Trump obscenity – the idea that we shouldn’t let any Muslims into this country because they’re Muslims. That’s a partner with his notion that if internment camps were good enough for the Japanese, they’re plenty good enough for Muslims.

Which brings me to a question. With all the media attention on Muslim communities, did anybody notice anyone cheering the San Bernardino massacre? The way Trump says Muslims in New Jersey cheered 9/11?

I didn’t think so.

That’s because Muslim-Americans were as sickened by what happened as anyone else. Probably more so, because the slaughter was done by nut cases who conflated their gripe against the people around them with support for the thugs at ISIS, and Muslims knew they were going to be blamed for something they didn’t do.

3. But there were people cheering the San Bernardino massacre.

One was the “cult of death,” as President Obama called it, of ISIS or ISIL or Daesh or whatever those people don’t like. That’s what I want to call them.

The other was Trump. He laps this stuff up. He could care less about any of the 14 people killed that day, the 14 families whose lives are in shambles because of this murder.

It’s an opportunity, and he’s taking it. Any chance he gets. His name is in the papers. He’s on all the TV shows. They’re talking about Trump.

And they – Trump and ISIS – feed off each other. He rouses crowds by implying all Muslims are terrorists. And ISIS recruits members by saying look at how this presidential candidate diminishes Muslims.

As I’ve said, if ISIS wins, it should give Trump the golf course contract for Raqqa as a reward.

4. We can’t do nothing. We can’t ignore him and make him go away. Because part of the problem is that there are swaths of this nation addicted to anger, and he is their pusher.

They’ve been conditioned by years of resenting people who don’t look like them occasionally win the battle for jobs that they lost. Or by years of being told government is evil, and everything it does diminishes freedom – conveniently forgetting that government in a democracy is what people contribute to it.

We need to keep pushing back. We need to console our friends who have been hurt by Trump that we’re there for them.

We need to educate people about things they don’t understand – that, for instance, Jesus is revered in Islam. That as Christianity is divided by sects, many of whom can’t get along with each other (see Northern Ireland), so is Islam (see the whole damn Middle East).

That as there are Christians with warped minds who would shoot up a Planned Parenthood office, there are Muslims with warped minds who would shoot up an office holiday party.

And that none of the killers is any match for the millions of faithful – as well as those of other religions and no religion – who contribute to the nation and help their neighbors in need.

5. On a day when he dominates the media, Trump seems like a winner. He’s on the front page and the first name heard at the top of the hour. People are talking about him.

But Trump’s a loser. One of the biggest losers in the whole history of this country. And anyone who sees eye to eye with him is a loser, too. We are stronger than he is and they are. There are more people of goodwill than there are people of indecency and moral bankruptcy.

Both Trump and the ISIS thugs will lose. All of us together will make sure of it.