Every year around election time, people start supporting a candidate and campaigning for him or her. College students are no different—many start clubs to support their candidate or attend political rallies held in their area. However, I feel like things are different for me and other students who have views similar to mine. I'm a college student that supports Donald Trump and his campaign for presidency. No, I'm not racist nor am I a registered Republican or even conservative, but what started out as a joking way of not being in support for the other candidates turned into a liking and passion for a candidate.
I'm a freshman at a large state university. Our school is located in a busy, metropolitan area and has a healthy number of international students as well as students from other parts of the country. I love my school and all of the opportunities I have here, but being a Trump supporter on a college campus is not very different from having a death wish. I've found that many of my peers are more liberal and tend to be supporters of Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Before I came to college, I, myself, was more liberal, I watched the news but unfortunately was also greatly influenced by my parents' views. Since being away at school, I have definitely changed as a person and I credit that to being on my own, learning more, meeting new people with different views and opinions and having a job for the first time.
Because of the viewpoints of those around me, I tend to keep my current political opinions to myself. If someone asked, I would tell them I was a Trump supporter and just hope they would be respectful about it. I've had my fair share of dirty looks, snarky comments and even people cutting off their relationship from me. One of the hardest parts of being a Trump supporter, for me at least, is not having anyone to share my opinions with. While we Trump supporters are greatly outnumbered in my area, many people I come across don't even want to have a civil conversation and discuss each other's candidates.
While being a Trump supporter hasn't been easy, I have become more open about it. This is in fact partly due to the fact that Trump recently came to speak at my university. When I first heard the news, I put a simple post on my class page asking how students could get tickets. I didn't say that I did or didn't support Trump, however, people made rude and unnecessary comments concerning the candidate. After I finally received my tickets, people questioned me about why I was so excited for the event or why I was even going in the first place. To be quite honest, I probably would have gone no matter what candidate was speaking, it was a good way to be informed first hand while being a part of history.
The day of the Trump rally I wore my Donald Trump shirt around campus. This was in part support for Trump but also to see how people would react. While no one stopped to talk to me about it, the looks I got said enough. I honestly felt scared to be wearing it around my campus, which says a great deal for the way people treat Donald Trump and his supporters. I think the rudest notion came when I was ordering a drink at one of the campus Starbucks locations and the woman taking my order, someone who gets paid to work in customer service and treat people nicely, outright scoffed at me and gave me an attitude while she took my order. Although, despite all this negativity, it was amazing to be at the rally later that day and be surrounded by people who feel the same way as me and actually want to talk about the Trump campaign.
Now for the question I get asked the most: why do you like Donald Trump? As I mentioned before, I originally started supporting Trump out of mockery and lack of interest in the other candidates. However, the more I heard him speak, the more I became interested in what he had to say. His outspoken nature is one that I respect and, in a way, idolize. He doesn't let people tell him no and he knows how to make a point.
That being said, Trump running is exciting because of how different he is from the other candidates. Personally, I am thrilled that he finances his own campaign and speaks his mind, unlike many of the other politicians who have sold out to gain money or simply just tell the people what they want to hear. He fights political correctness and calls out things that other people are scared to talk about.
In a way, voting for Trump is like sticking it to the man. Trump knows that the American government is a joke yet he's not stupid enough to destroy it even more. Besides the defunct political institution, Americans are tired of being underrepresented in Washington. Too many politicians focus on immigrants and civil rights when our country is facing more serious issues. Trump could be the president that finally represents the American people how they want to be represented: truthful and outspoken.
One more reason I believe in Trump is the fact that I believe he's scared to fail. Trump has an image of success, there's no way he would give that up for anything. To quote an article from The Atlantic, dated Aug. 2015, "He [Trump] will sucker in talent, tell them that their work is terrible, push them to achieve beyond what they think is possible and then take credit for their successes as he tells America, and the world, that their projects are the best thing that has ever happened. This works. It’s not pretty, but it works.” If someone wants to be successful, they must portray an image of success at all times. If the American people can't even have faith and support for their country, there's no way the rest of the world will look at us and take us seriously.
To be honest, I hear people say rude things about Trump supporters all the time. We are called selfish, ignorant, smug, racist and just about every other hateful word in the book. While I could easily say things about supporters of other candidates, I choose not to. An old saying goes "Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate." Every candidate has nasty supporters who only provoke trouble and don't really support their candidate's cause, and every candidate has amazing supporters who feel very passionately about what they believe in. Everyone has the right to think what they want to and support who they want to. People should not be bullied by the mentality of the masses or the politically correct. While I know I will continue to receive flak for my support of Donald Trump, I hope that people now understand why I am a supporter and can be respectful of me, other supporters and our candidate.
To view the article that I quoted and see why myself and others support Trump, check out the article from The Atlantic
