Since Donald Trump formally launched his presidential campaign on June 16, 2015, it hasn’t been hard for him to gain popularity. Social media communities are almost always talking about him, and the self-sustaining Internet wrath towards him seems relentless. The country has festered a deep disenchantment with the official political candidates, and now, Trump is here to be the voice of the “common man” – despite being incredibly wealthy. As presidential candidate, he has chosen to focus on disputed issues such as illegal immigration and Muslim immigration. Many Americans feel that government officials haven’t addressed these issues seriously enough or that the issues haven’t received as much light as they should have.
From a first look at Donald Trump and his presidential campaign, you might perceive him as a totally absurd and mind-boggling individual. But what are you really looking at and how is it biased? What is the image and its producer wanting you to see?
After becoming increasingly frustrated by obviously-biased news outlets such as Fox News and CNN, and the extreme, raging anti-Trump protestors, I decided to dig for research on my own to find out what the facts were behind this controversial man. What exactly are his policies and views of illegal immigration and Muslim immigration? I found that when you take the initiative to scour the Internet and find things out for yourself, the findings suddenly have much more substance. The controversial areas become verifiable because you now know the honest truth (or at least as close to the truth as you can get) instead of what the various news medias are feeding you. After hours of research and taking notes, here are two claims about Mr. Donald Trump and what the truth is behind them.
1. @BernieSanders: “The U.S. is a strong nation when we stand together. We are weak when we allow racism and xenophobia to divide us. cc: @realDonaldTrump”
Let's begin with the definition of "racist". A racist is “a person who believes that a particular race is superior to another.” Donald Trump's positions on issues don’t relay the message that Muslims and Mexicans are below him or other races in general. However, his positions DO relay the message that he wants to border our country from the other country of Mexico because "A nation without borders is not a nation." And if you think this is a looney, racist idea, what do you have to say about the other 65 countries of the world that have border fences to keep out migrants? He wants to keep “illegal immigrants out.” Keyword: illegal. Trump goes on to say that he wants people to come into our country in a legal manner. “And people are going to come into our country, and they’re going to come in legally. And we want people to come in and we want to treat people fairly.” But, “we have to stop the inflow of illegals coming into country.”
And regarding Muslims, yes, Trump wants “a total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering America. However, people fail to follow the rest of that quote. He says that he wants to ban Muslims from entering the country “until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses." This temporary ban is not “xenophobia” as Bernie Sanders labels it. This is intelligibly a precaution to protect our own country and our own people from a threat that none of us are completely sure how it operates.
2. The Philadelphia Daily News Calling Donald Trump: "The New Furor"
Excuse me, what? Do you even know what you just insinuated? I understand that people are angry and irritated at Donald Trump's views, but taking things to this extend? This is a treacherous hyperbole that not only insults Trump, but also those people who were affected by Hitler's dynasty. Since it seems that people are forgetting who exactly Adolf Hitler was, let me enlighten them all. Adolf Hitler was a fascist who took power over Germany in 1933 and led an armed uprising against the German government. He brainwashed his followers to believe they were the rivals to the existing military and that all Jews were the enemy. In the end, Hitler and his killing squads ended up annihilating at least 11 million people.
So, by saying Donald Trump is the new Adolf Hitler, you’re saying that he’s going to coordinate a mass murder of, I guess, Hispanics and Muslims. Well no, Trump isn’t trying to exterminate their entire race. And if you’re not saying he wants to murder them, I guess you mean that he’s going to inflict terror on them and torture them? Again, no. Trump isn’t proposing for the United States to kick Muslims and Hispanics out of the country who are already here. And he doesn’t want to create concentration camps to contain those Muslims and Hispanics who are already here.
Where do we, as Americans, draw the line on salacious comments and comparisons? I get that people dislike him, but this comparison is toxic, it's not adequately based on facts, and it's dangerous that American citizens are willing to demagogue such critical issues.
You don't have to support Donald Trump and his campaign, but at least be fully aware of who he is, what he thinks about issues, and why is it that you don't support him. With the world of Internet at our fingertips, it’s hard to filter through the falsehood and find the facts. However, if you simply take the time to cultivate the truth of the matter, I guarantee you’ll rest confidently with both the people and positions you support.
