As November draws closer, our country is nearing the inevitable conclusion of electing the next president of the United States of America. The presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump, is notorious for his fantastical lifestyle and excessive wealth.
Now before all you Trump supporters come after me, please hear me out. I know that the media has a lot of negative things to say about Trump and being that I’m writing for a national online magazine, I’m just joining the party. All of that aside, I would like to warrant the face that I do agree with a handful of Donald Trump’s more moderate policies that can be found here on his campaign website.
This is not an article attacking his political and economic competency. This is an article to discuss the potential legacy of Trump and that “Making America Great Again” is not all that it is cracked up to be.
Progress is a means of measuring success. As a society, progress is measured in equality, safety, economic growth, etc. As The Declaration of Independence puts it, “all men are created equal." This has been a fight for centuries, and is only recently coming closer to being true. The constitution does not even mention women, so we see progress in women’s rights within modern times.
We learn about influential figures in our history classes and the legacy that they have left behind. All of these influential figures share the common trait of having progressive beliefs and values. Their legacies are ones of progress and innovation.
A legacy is left behind after each president leaves office. Some leave a larger impact than others, and some are merely forgotten in the slew of history textbooks and decades that have passed. I fear the legacy that Donald Trump will potentially leave. There is no doubt that Mr. Trump holds a lot of prejudice, particularly towards Latino heritage and Muslim faith.
We have worked for years to achieve equality particularly among areas such as race, gender, and sexual orientation. Everyone is created equal. The idea that the most important man in America, and arguably the world, wants to destroy century old legacies is terrifying. Mr. Trump has made boisterous claims about American minorities as well as derogatory and dehumanizing comments about women. This establishes him as one of the most perverse and backwards presidential nominees this country has ever seen.
Some Trump supporters argue that his outlandish ideas—building a wall between Mexico and America, forcing people of Muslim faith to wear identification tags, and intentionally committing horrific war crimes—would not be seen out past Congress. None the less, this violent and jarring mindset remains instilled within the man who seemingly has a 50 percent chance of running our country.
Do we really want these ideologies to serve as the foundation for a society where our children will grow up?
When we think of a president, we think of honor and fairness. A country run by someone who lacks general respect for people from all walks of life is a country set down a path of division and deposition. There should be no fear in a democracy. There should be equality and opportunity for success. That is what will build our society, our communities, and our economy. That is what will make America great again.
