As citizens of a divided nation with two starkly contrasting political parties, Americans as a group don’t agree on much. We have very different views regarding immigration, health care, reproductive rights, gun control…the list goes on. But we must not forget that beyond all these opposing protests and Twitter arguments, Republicans, Democrats, and Independents do have fundamental beliefs in common. All Americans love freedom.
America’s freedom is what is at the core of the nation. It’s what we were founded on in 1776. It’s what makes these protests and Twitter fights possible under the Constitution. Thanks to the First Amendment, each individual citizen is promised a right to speak freely, protest loudly, and practice religious beliefs as they choose. It is a beautiful thing that brings Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs together. At the very least, we can all agree on the First Amendment, the essence of our nationalism, even if we can’t agree on the Second.
Lately, however, our rights granted to us by the First Amendment have been somewhat compromised. The election naming Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States allowed for this to happen. Since he moved into the White House less than two weeks ago, President Trump has attempted to violate Americans’ rights related to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion, earning him a historically low approval rating less than a month into his presidency.
Since the beginning of his campaign, he has made it his priority to wage war against the media. He has called journalists “the most dishonest human beings on earth” for sharing honest depictions of Trump’s Inauguration audience size. Statistical evidence and photographic proof isn’t an argument; Trump’s crowds were significantly smaller than Obama’s, and he’s blaming the media for it. He also blamed publications like the New York Times for inciting protests across the nation, refusing to take any responsibility for the reasons behind protests, and disrespecting the rights of journalists and protesters to speak their ideas freely.
Why does our president hate the media so much? It’s fair to assume that there are biased news sources sharing information that is slightly left-leaning and therefore against most of what the Trump Administration does. But most of what Trump gets so angry about is the reporting of facts. News sources are not biased when they are using direct quotes from Trump, or video footage of what he’s said, or photographic evidence of a real life event. This is not “fake news,” Mr. President. You just don’t like it.
Trump is also silencing freedom of speech through organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture. He established a gag order on the EPA and USDA, blocking them from communicating their information with the public. This is a blatant violation of the United States Constitution. These are associations that obtain information that is crucial to be heard by the public. In a time where climate change is intensifying and the needs of the environment are not being taken seriously by office-holding politicians, the EPA deserves the right to share pivotal scientific information with citizens. In addition, research conducted by the EPA and the USDA is funded by tax-payers of this country; citizens deserve to hear about the research we pay for. Freedom of speech and the rights of tax-payers are not leftist issues; they’re American issues.
Most recently, Trump has also been violating the religious freedom portion of the First Amendment. He signed an executive order to bar refugees from seven different Muslim-majority countries for at least 120 days. He promises that this “extreme vetting” order will keep our nation safe from terrorism, regardless of the fact that there is no substantial proof that terrorists are even coming from any of these countries. Trump also thought it would be a good idea to allow Christians refugees priority from these nations to come to the United States.
Critics of this order claim that it is in violation of the First Amendment, which forbids the establishment of a national religion and prohibits the denial of life, liberty, or property by the government outside the law. The executive order favors Christianity as a national religion and denies foreigners of asylum due only to their religious practices.
Now, some see this executive order as something completely separated from religion, arguing that it’s an order for Americans’ safety, that it’s not at all against Muslims. Vice president Mike Pence said it was “clearly not a Muslim ban” and has no association with religion. But people with this perspective fail to recognize the biased support for Christians in a secular country or the dangerous spread of Islamophobia in America. They exercise their freedom of religion by refusing to support contraceptive or declining service to a member of the LGBT community. They fail to have the same support for freedom of religion when it involves supporting a group of Muslims in danger looking for refuge in an immigrant nation. Our country’s separation of church and state has become weak, and Trump’s executive order marginalizing Muslims and favoriting Christians is only making it worse.
President Trump has begun to create a nation that is unrecognizable. Journalists are being arrested, refugees are being turned away, and credible news outlets are being attacked. This nation was created for freedom. It was meant to be a land where citizens of various oppressive countries could come to practice their religions freely and speak their minds without repercussion. This is not a time to pick sides, to attack Democrats for protesting or attack Republicans for supporting their party. This is a time to look critically at what our fundamental American beliefs are and how they correspond with our current actions and circumstances. We must then use this powerful inspiration to look beyond party differences and protect the rights our founding fathers granted to us.
