On May 4th, when it was clear that Donald Trump would become the Republican party's nominee for President of the United States, everyone I spoke to could only express their horror that this had happened. With the response so common and coming one after the other, I decided to ask people why they were terrified of a Trump presidency. Those I asked in person looked at me and could not immediately respond. There were too many reasons, they said, it was impossible to pick one. So I contacted people and asked for written responses to my prompt, giving them time to put together their thoughts and get to the essence.
Three people, all millennials, all college-age students, but with different backgrounds and different political views, answered my query. Each of their responses touches on a different troubling aspect of Trump's candidacy.
The first is from Jeri Mallory, who responded, "I am terrified of Donald Trump because his hateful rhetoric and bigoted views are a catalyst for violence and chaos that utterly destroy my faith in mankind." She hit upon one of the more common topics that come up when you speak with someone who disagrees with Trump: his divisiveness. From the start of his campaign, Trump has incited fear and hatred against nearly every group that isn't white men, from immigrants to Muslims. After violence at his Chicago rally in March, "The Rachel Maddow Show" did a segment in which the host flat out stated, "I'm saying that deliberately tried to incite violence from his event earlier today."
Yet Trump is not working in a vacuum; he has followers. Hayden Robinson got at this aspect of the Trump campaign when he said, "I'm terrified of Donald Trump because he proves that the Republican base is racist and/or poorly educated." While not all Republicans are racist or poorly educated, it is hard to draw different conclusions when they are the ones who have given Trump the Republican nomination with a plurality of the vote. Of the 17 different options the Republicans had, they picked the one who last ran for president against Pat Buchanan for the Reform Party nomination, the one who is known as a reality TV star, the one that refused to believe President Obama met the 'born in the United States' qualification to be president. The Republican party picked the candidate who flip-flops on every issue, from Libya to Planned Parenthood, who believes that women who get abortions should be punished. Hayden's quote goes behind the magic curtain, behind the candidate to ask about the people who voted for him. He might be over-generalizing, but he makes a good point. Are these the truly the beliefs of our fellow Americans?
Just before the Iowa Caucus, after he had already been spewing hateful rhetoric for more than half a year, Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?" It would seem ridiculous that a candidate could say that, more ridiculous that it might actually be true, although we have not yet discovered the veracity of such a statement. "I'm terrified of Donald Trump because he's unpredictable, and the rules that every candidate in every past election played by do not seem to apply to him," Katie Nichols said, getting at this. Trump seems to be this great outlier in American politics, doing and saying things that would never work for another candidate. Trump has alienated and insulted women, immigrants, Muslims, and so many other places, people, and things that the NYT website has a list of more than 200 just drawn from Twitter. It seems ridiculous that a candidate who insults so many could have as much support as he does, but although he loses in every poll to the Democratic nominee, he seems to be closing in on Hillary Clinton. The laws of elections have been flouted over and over by Trump and no one seems to be able to say when or if it will end.
Other reasons given orally to me included his stances on global warming and his belief that you can run a country like a business. Which, considering how poorly he has run some of his businesses (his multiple bankruptcies come to mind), is not a comforting thought. My boss told me that she is terrified because he is unqualified to be president.
As for my own view?
I am terrified of Donald Trump because he might win in November and I worry about what my country will become if he does.
