When an erratic billionaire and reality TV star known for bizarre, contradictory utterances, self-pitying victimization and overblown arrogance becomes a presidential candidate, you get a clown dressed as a prince while remaining a clown — a destructive one.

A charlatan with a history of questionable business and personal decisions, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate, lent his name to a fraudulent “university” that burdened its students with debt; filed multiple bankruptcies, leaving debt holders in the lurch, and has compiled, instead of accomplishments, decades of negative press in tabloids and gossip columns.

All of this should have ended his campaign on its second day. Instead, Trump rode a tidal wave of anger that now engulfs the Republican Party.

His campaign for president is predicated on blame; its central strategy is the art of the attack. He has denigrated immigrants, Muslims and women. Never acknowledging, for example, that most Mexican immigrants have risked their lives to seek an opportunity in the United States that has been denied them in the land of their birth, he instead slanders them as rapists and criminals.

Yes, it is indisputable that much of our current political system is broken. There’s too much money in politics — and too little accountability. In Washington, D.C., the divide between the two parties now looks like the Grand Canyon — and the citizens suffer.

But during such daunting, serious times as these, the solution cannot be voting for a candidate whose campaign shatters civility at every opportunity. We cannot cling to a false nostalgia to “make America great again” — certainly not when the slogan is embroidered on baseball caps made in China.

The real challenge is to stand together to create a viable future. Doing this is never easy, but as union members, we work together as family. This is a moment when we have the power to reject, collectively, the bigotry and fear and frustration that Trump’s now peddling.

Donald Trump has long mastered the art of deception. We cannot allow ourselves to become his next trophy.