I don't generally give Donald any public attention, so this will be one of just a few--if not the only--post I ever write about him. The public gives him too much attention for his crass behavior, obnoxious rhetoric and frankly ill-constructed, nonsensical speeches. Usually, I would prefer to give information and attention to other candidates, even the ones I don't support because Donald is manipulating every situation in order to get the most press.
However, there is one thing that hasn't left my mind over the last few weeks. Just one thing about Trump's campaign that is specifically horrifying: the violence.
I'm not just talking about his oppressive words, nor his ignorance that he claims is intelligence. I'm talking about many of the supporters who attend his rallies. Donald's words have triggered such violence in these supporters that he no longer needs to pretend to be peaceful. Minutes into the October 23rd rally at his Miami golf resort, three small Latin groups protested with chants of "equality" and "dignity." Some protesters are going to be loud--that's the point of a vocal protest, to make an opinion heard. But it was a peaceful protest on immigration reform. This post from Time describes the violence imposed by the rally-attendees:
There was yelling, kicking and pushing. One Trump supporter used a campaign sign that read “The Silent Majority Stands With Trump,” to hit a protester on his back as he was being led away. A large bald man grabbed protester Ariel Rojas by the collar, toppling him to the floor, before kicking him. The candidate, no foe of confrontation himself, appealed for mercy and peace. “You can get them out,” Trump said of the protesters, “but don’t hurt them.”<span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker" data-verified="redactor"></span>
The words were not heeded. “It was intense,” Paula Muñoz, 23, one of the protesters, said afterwards, exhilarated but shaken as she reconvened with the other activists in a parking lot across the street. One had gotten kicked in the knee; another was nursing his back, which got wrenched in the scuffle. “I’m pretty shocked by the way people reacted,” said Jorge Tume, 24, who helped organize the demonstration.
You might be thinking "okay, but Trump told them not to be violent." You're right, and while I'm doubtful he really meant it, at least he said it. But one month later, at Donald's Birmingham, Alabama rally, Mercutio Southall Jr.--an activist for the Black Lives Matter movement-- shouted "Black lives matter," to which Donald responded “Get him the hell out of here, will you, please? Get him out of here. Throw him out!” Southall was eventually escorted out, but not before falling to the ground and being punched and kicked by several other men.
"Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing," Trump said on the Fox News Channel on Sunday morning. "I have lots of fans, and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy who was a trouble-maker who was looking to make trouble."
The Washington Post
So in just a month, Donald's aggressive side was peeking through. Still, saying that a guy "should have been roughed up" isn't the worst thing Donald could have said, right? Yeah, but it went from "don't hurt them" to "he deserved to be hurt." And unfortunately, it only gets worse from here. January, in Rock Hill, SC, Rose Hamid--a flight-attendant and Muslim woman--stood up silently when Donald claimed the Syrian refugees were aligned with Daesh (previously called the Islamic State). As she was escorted out by security, the hatred escorted her as well.
As they were escorted out, Trump supporters roared -- booing the pair and shouting at them to "get out." One person shouted, "You have a bomb, you have a bomb," according to Hamid."The ugliness really came out fast and that's really scary," Hamid told CNN in a phone interview after she was ejected.
CNN
Do one Google search and you'll find even more examples. I've left all of the racial slurs and white supremacy declarations out of this article because they made me very uncomfortable. Regardless of which candidate you support, no one in America should fear for their safety just because they are voicing their opinion. That's one of the principles that the United States was founded upon, and Donald does not represent that freedom.










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