For over a year now, our country has been crippled by a fervor, no, a disease that has taken hold of the nation, and time and time again it rears its ugly head with a resounding "Make America Great Again." Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency has effectively changed this nation, that he can count as a victory, but instead of making it great, this country under his influence has dissolved into hate.
Never before in the history of politics has a presidential candidate and presumptive party nominee verbally assaulted and disparaged so many groups, the vast majority of America, the people who truly already make it great. They are too many to number: Latinos, African-Americans, women, veterans (in a move that should have ended his campaign on its own), the disabled, the LGBT community, and Muslims, leaving about the only group untouched as white males. Each of these groups has been victimized by the toxic Trump campaign, in what feels like it should be a scene from Mean Girls, with the Donald in pink miniskirt and heels.
What is truly baffling about this campaign, aside from its almost daily media blunders and offenses, is how it has morphed its supporters and brought out the worst in them. In a campaign so outwardly racist, sexist, and narcissistic, the American public fervently stands behind this man, whose favorite phrase is an ominous, "You're fired."
How could the American public get so...mean? Countless celebrities, as well as politicians, have called Trump for what he truly is: a bully. Maybe it's a pack mentality, maybe it's some superficial feeling of superiority for putting other groups down, but the Trump fanbase reflects their leader, bullies in their own right.
Every Trump supporter I have come in contact with has been outright bombastic and confrontational about their choice of candidate, and many refuse even a friendly debate, nonetheless an explanation of why exactly they chose their man.
Perhaps it's the illusion of strength that Trump conveys, that he refuses to bend to conventional political standards of decorum, or his idealistic promise to make America great again, though the specifics of which are still fuzzy.
But if he really is firm, why did he give the press five different stances on abortion in three days? Why did he spend months berating one reporter for asking him a real question? Why did he back down from his proposed ban on Muslim immigration as soon as it became evident he would become the Republican nominee, labeling it "just a suggestion?"
There are so many questions surrounding the resounding success of Trump's campaign, but personally, I just want to know one: what license has he to be so indecent and cruel? And even more so, why do people buy it? Instead of making America great again, why can't we make America decent again, a place we can say we're proud to represent? America has been sick for a year now: it's time to wake up and smell the air, we're sinking.
