By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I have been voting for president in every election since 1972.

Not once have I felt such intense personal loathing for the man who sits in the president’s office … until right now.

Actually, my visceral animosity dates back to the evening when I heard Donald Trump had won enough Electoral College votes to become the nation’s 45th president.

Then it started. The intensely personal and persistent rage at the thought that Americans had sent this carnival barker into the Oval Office, given him access to the most dangerous weapon system ever created and handed him the keys to governing a nation that in a fit of anger forgot about the standards is used to set for the individual who they choose to lead us.

It’s not that I oppose Trump’s ideology. He doesn’t possess anything of the sort. He has no set of guiding principles. Trump does not adhere to a fundamental set of values. He views political relationships as transactional events; you do this for me and I’ll do that for you.

This individual had zero public service experience under his belt. He continues to exhibit zero interest in public service even now as he occupies the presidency.

The record of chock full of anecdotes and recollections of those with whom he has worked about how he talks about others, how he feels about Americans who idolize him. There is the prevailing sense that he detests the rank-and-file Trumpkins who flock to his rallies and cheer the lies that fly out of his mouth.

I have harbored these thoughts about Trump since before he became president. I didn’t want him to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in 2016. I damn sure didn’t want him to defeat Hillary Clinton who, despite her own flaws, was eminently more qualified to serve as our head of state and commander in chief than the individual who won the election.

So, here we are. Another election is on tap. Trump is in pandering mode to be sure. He will select someone to sit on the Supreme Court in the wake of the great Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. My hunch is that he doesn’t know the first thing about any of the finalists he is considering, other than how they might appeal to elements of his political base.

He has failed the test of leadership at every level possible.

Yes, it’s personal with me. I want him gone.