A year ago, Donald Trump announced that he would run for president and promised that he would “Make America Great Again”. The phrase has since been synonymous with the Trump campaign and a rallying cry for his supporters. However, the campaign slogan has come with its detractors from those opposed to the Republican nominee. Many high profile democrats as well as republicans have often claimed, “America never stopped being great.” Some have even gone so far as to say that when Trump says he wants to make America great again, he really means that he wants to bring the country back to its dark ages.
Both of these notions are simply not true, and reflect an ignorance to the problems we as a country face. Of course the American way is working together to conquer any obstacle in our way, but by saying America never stopped being great is refusing to acknowledge the severe issues ahead of us. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but so am I. And my opinion is that if you believe everything is just fine in America, you are either ignorant, uninformed, or just plain stupid.
If you’re wondering when America stopped being great, then allow me to explain when it did. When citizens lost respect for law enforcement and the people sworn to protect and defend us as well as our rights, America stopped being great. When feelings became more important than rights, America stopped being great. When we blamed guns for senseless violence, America stopped being great. When people looked to the government to solve their problems instead of themselves, America stopped being great. When politicians on both sides of the aisle began to care more about their special interests and reelections than serving the American people, America stopped being great.
American culture has been destroyed by all of these things. We have lost the value of hard work and the respect for the basic rights of others, including brave men and women sworn to protect us. The government has failed us because of division and obstruction rather than unity and compromise. Politicians who we trust to be our voice in government, are instead the voice of special interests, lobbyists, or whatever will get them reelected, including rigging the voting process, the very cornerstone of our democracy.
It is for these reasons that we must rise up and reject the status quo and acknowledge the problems with our country. Whether you support Donald Trump and his policies is irrelevant, the fact is that the only way to fix this rigged and broken system is to stand against it. And if you still believe that America never stopped being great, then that’s fine. But don’t complain in a few years when things get even worse than they already are while you had your head buried in the sand pretending everything was okay. Because at that point, it will be too late.