Who are we making America great for again? This is kind of a loaded question, I’d like to think. It’s a little odd when it comes up on this red hat screaming at us like stop signs, and I’m pretty damn sure that’s not a coincidence. Now, we’re coming closer and closer to the end and it’s becoming harder and harder to avoid looking at what many have compared to the walking apocalypse. Which in my head is about as red as that hat, it’s foreshadowing at its finest! But whether our local carrot man has good things in mind or not isn’t what’s up for debate, but actually what he’s rallying people behind is.

Let’s make America great again. It’s a pretty big statement. I’m pretty fast on the draw when it comes to conversations; I talk a lot no doubt, but I’m very rarely left speechless. So when I’m walking away and joking with my friend about it and he states “Well, for people like me, 60+ years ago wasn’t so great,” it sinks in. For more than half of our nation, the farther we go back, the darker it looks. Couldn’t vote, couldn’t live as they wanted too, hell we just recently celebrated the anniversary of gay marriage. What America are we returning too? The one where all of this wasn’t acceptable? Where we had more and more issues with civilities and the people who were involved, where people struggled and fought to be treated as human, not separate entities. Hell, we still have these problems today, so we’re supposed to go even farther back? I think I’ll pass.

We’ve got so many issues today that we’re just now pushing forward through, and the catch-phrase of our favorite Charlie and the Chocolate Factory helper throws off like a bible verse just rubs into the progress they’ve all made. Now maybe, just maybe, it can be explained that we can keep the progress but also turn back time, but at that point someone wants to be juggling some magic tricks to go back and move forward at the same time. We’re at a moment where we have to realize we cannot go backwards to where America was great, because at any moment in our history we just weren’t great at all. We’ve always been a nation of struggles and faults, that’s what made us America.

America has never been great, but it’s always been about trying to be. From striving forward through the perverted laws that kept our fellow citizens back, to pushing through boundaries of intellect and social acceptance, America has the opportunity to be great and always falls short. But it never stops us from trying. I don’t want to make America “great” again. I want America to shed its inactive bullshit and want of returning to a “greener” time and make something better of itself. The America I believe in has that potential, because we’ve never been there before, and I feel like we’re on the brink of becoming something great soon.