When Donald Trump speaks, the women of America listen.

A year ago, he attributed “Fox News” journalist Megyn Kelly’s tough questions to her menstrual cycle. He called a lawyer “disgusting” when she requested to pump milk for her three-month-old baby. He told a female journalist, “I mean, we could say politically correct that the look doesn’t matter, but the look obviously matters … Like you wouldn’t have your job if you weren’t beautiful.”

In an incendiary tweet attacking Hillary Clinton for her husband’s infidelity, he asked, “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, how can she satisfy America?” Clearly, Trump has a long and unambiguous history of derogatory remarks towards women.

Yet, after tapes were released of sexually aggressive comments, he made a decade ago, Trump claimed that they “don’t reflect who I am.” Trump has shown us exactly who he is. This was no youthful indiscretion. He was exactly the same man then as he is now. Someone who is dangerously close to becoming the leader of the free world feels entitled to commit sexual assault because “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”

Trump issued a defiant statement after the release of the tapes: “I apologize if anyone was offended.”

If? Trump would wonder if anyone was touchy enough to be offended by the idea that women are merely objects to look at and have sex with, that sex is his God-given entitlement that can never, ever, be denied.

By suggesting that “locker room talk” is anything other than a discussion of a particularly tough spin class, Trump insinuates that behind closed doors men are entitled to abandon the  pretense that women are people, too, not just sex objects.

He actively dismissed the seriousness of his statements, suggesting that he has said much worse in the past. Make no mistake: Trump’s braggadocio about sexual assault to a giggly Billy Bush is “bigly” offensive to both men and women. 

Astonishingly, many key GOP leaders have failed to denounce his atrocious behavior. Some Republican members of Congress expressed disapproval on social media but did not rescind their endorsements of him. A vote for Trump is a full and unqualified demonstration of support for his behavior, notwithstanding a few tweets of condemnation.

Speaker Paul Ryan, it took courage to refuse to campaign with Trump, but a true leader would stand up to his bigotry and sexism in the voting booth. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, would you leave your daughters alone in a room with Trump? No? Then why do you still support his candidacy for the most powerful office on Earth?

Sen. Marco Rubio, you condemned Trump’s behavior during your own candidacy and said that his “words have consequences.” Why don’t his words have consequences now?

We must ask ourselves why Bush was suspended from the “Today Show,” but Trump is still in the running for the presidency.

While some of our elected representatives can’t bring themselves to stand up against Trump’s reprehensible behavior, we can stand up to him ourselves. The American electorate has a stark choice to make. We can elect a candidate with the most progressive platform in history or one who will take us back to an era when people of color, women, immigrants, non-Christians and members of the LGBTQ+ community were second-class citizens. Vote against bigotry, sexism, racism, classism and hate. Vote for your future. Vote for you. Just vote.