I hate to talk about him and, worse, I hate to defend him. It seems, though, that protesters against Donald Trump have officially become aggressive. There are reports of things thrown at him while onstage and even one of his rallies cancelled for safety concerns. While the right to protest is a right given to all citizens, it is specifically the right to peacefully protest. And another right given to all citizens in that same Amendment is the freedom of speech.
I'm probably the first one to argue against Trump. The first one to compare him to Hitler, to list his offenses. I am in no way in support of this man as a human, let alone a presidential candidate. However, that does not mean that he does not have his First Amendment right. Violent protesters against Trump are silencing him, taking away the opportunity for the public to challenge his statements, shutting down conversation, forcing a "safe space" in which nothing offensive is ever said and encouraging Trump supporters.
Trump's speeches are full of racist, discriminatory, hateful, childish and overly-nationalistic rhetoric. This is well documented by now, with clips and quotes swimming around every social media platform possible. He's dominated media. He's every front-page story in every political sphere. I can understand the desire to silence him, to try to stop this rhetoric from influencing the public. Not to mention that Trump supporters certainly aren't peaceful. They harass even quiet protesters, scream in people's faces and get people kicked out of rallies, silencing their free speech. Why shouldn't we return the favor?
Because that's exactly what Trump's campaign needs. His ideologies stem from the classic "eye for an eye" approach: the wall at the border of Mexico, the mass deportations, the several "bombings" in various places that he has promised. By violently shutting down his rallies, we are taking this same approach. You hurt us, we'll hurt you. All this does is increase the polarity between Trump supporters and Trump protesters. It brings Trump supporters closer together and makes them angrier. It fuels their fire. That means an escalation of violent acts from both sides, which is bad news for everyone.
Even more than that, not allowing Trump to speak means not allowing people to challenge what he says. Silencing him will not fix the demographic in this country who subscribe to his hurtful and dangerous rhetoric. They will still be here and, even scarier than Trump, they will be among us. We instead need to let Trump say what he is going to say, as is his right, and argue against it, analyze and attack the roots of his ideas and statements—not the existence of the words themselves. We must use our own free speech to challenge what cultural and social context is fostering these hateful attitudes. Simply forcing them to shut up is not enough. Violent protesting will get us nowhere, and it will not address the issues facing this country and its people. What we need to beat Trump is not more violence. We can instead use our voices to fight back, and we can vote come this year's election. That is how we will trump Trump and his legacy.
