When Donald Trump first announced his presidential campaign, many Americans thought it was largely a joke—the antics of an out-of-control ego vying for a new “challenge.” However, as the campaign ramps up, and the elections draw closer, many of these same Americans find themselves faced with the potential reality of Mr. Trump leading the United States. Finding a healthy amount of supporters among disgruntled high-middle-class and wealthy Republicans, as well as most business moguls to whom Trump openly caters to, Trump’s campaign is now far from a joke and is becoming a deadly warning of a nation with seemingly nowhere else to turn.

Trump’s popularity may be laughable, but it is understandable; after all, Trump is truly a household name, exponentially so over the other candidates. New York City alone has been painted with his name on some of its most impressive buildings over the past four decades. The man has even had a nationally televised, quite popular reality TV show where he fired people for the public’s entertainment. Moreover, the 1980s propelled his name into the media when Trump helped set a national legal precedent for domestic rape with his alleged assault on his then-wife Ivana Trump.

Today, Trump’s shock-and-awe tactics allow him to remain in the limelight without a problem, through his offensive comments about every group of people other than rich, white Americans males and his aggressive promises of slash-and-burn “repairs” to the current domestic politics. Trump’s Twitter account is a racial supremacist’s gospel, calling Mexican migrants “rapists” and “criminals,” promising to rid the country of them one way or another. While these comments are seen by much of the free-thinking (read: “thinking”) public as ludicrous and unnecessarily offensive, foolish moves for a presidential candidates, especially when states such as Arizona, California, New Mexico, and New York have an extreme number of Mexican-American voters, specialists and campaign experts see these moves as diabolical ways to keep the Trump name at the forefront of people’s minds constantly. In an almost subliminal messaging technique, the viewers of any American media syndicate will be inundated with reports of Trump’s latest actions and then further inundated with responses and reactions to these actions. It seems that Trump is actively pursuing the policy of “all publicity is good publicity,” and who knows, he may be in the right, because when those voters who have not been able to or had the desire to research the candidates, they will scan the ballots for familiar names and it seems that presently Trump’s is the first one to be recognized by most of the United States instead of Ted Cruz or Bernie Sanders, with Hillary Clinton perhaps in close second.

However, Republicans nationwide are calling for the public to end the widespread ridicule of the would-be politician and listen to his arguments, which is only fair. At first glance, the slogan “Make America great again!” is inspiring. However, if one thinks of the issues that the majority of the country and its legal bodies have been pursuing lately, it is clear that as a country we are moving away from the time when America was “great” as Trump envisions it. Trump wants and promises a rich, powerful center of capitalism America such as post-World War II America, and, if his incessant racist and sexist comments are any sign of things to come, then he is also comfortable with the gritty, prejudiced parts of 1950s America, which for the past eight years we have been fighting tooth and nail. Having legalized gay marriage, combatted discrimination in education and the workplace, and battled racism in police systems all over the country, all this social progress stands to suffer if Trump would have his way. Of course, even if elected, which is still a far shot, but no longer an impossibility, he would not be an absolutist ruler, but undoubtedly his agenda would not offer any kind of social impact, focusing solely on allowing big business freedom of action without persecution or even taxation in order to make America’s rich, richer.