WOW! Well Mr. Trump, the list is growing. So far, you have a majority of both Republican and Democratic candidates for POTUS; Vice President Dick Cheney; Speaker Paul Ryan; the Prime Ministers of Britain and France; and countless others speaking out against you. You’ve done it. You cracked the code! You have universally pissed people off by saying you want a “total ban” on Muslims.
I can’t lie, I’m actually happy that Trump is doing so well. To me, Trump’s campaign (and huge lead in the polls) only highlights what most rational folks already knew: the majority of the Republican Party’s supporters want a country that supports their beliefs ONLY. American values REALLY means White American Values.
To be honest, I have NO idea what “American values” mean anymore. There was a time when I thought the beginning of the Declarations of Independence’s preamble represented “American values”: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
But that can’t be true. Not if Trump is running on a platform to, “Make America Great Again.” Again? As in before? As in, how it used to be? When all men were NOT created equal? Trump’s platform appears to be one where “Great” only applied to a certain segment of the American population.
What about the Bill of Rights and other Constitutional amendments? Do they establish the framework for America’s values? Again, it’s hard to tell anymore. I mean, today’s Republican Party, you know, the party that is considered the most “patriotic” of the two major parties. Yeah, THAT party. The party of strict Constitution constructionists. The party who believes in the divinity of the Constitution.
That’s what fascinates me about Mr. Trump and his supporters. More American citizens have died by the hands of other Americans in mass shootings then acts of terrorism. Yet conservatives fight tooth and nail to defend the second amendment and are all too quick to disregard the Constitution when it comes to Muslims. Conservatives support religious freedom. As long as it has to do with companies to deny goods and services to people or outlawing the rights of citizens of the same-sex to marriage. To hell with their religious freedoms and rights to “Happiness”, I guess.
See, Trump and his flock of disadvantaged beneficiaries are FAR too willing, and even determined, to completely shred the very same Constitution and rights of American’s when they disagree with something. To them, not only is it okay to treat Muslims unfairly, it’s also okay to violate their Constitutional rights.
Muslim? Nope, can’t be president. Want to build a mosque? Hell no, you might take in Syrian refugee terrorists. And now, we don't even want you coming into our country.
"Nobody wants your evil cult. Every one of you are terrorists. I don't care what you say. I don't care what you think."
- Unidentified man speaking to a group of Muslims at a public meeting in Virginia"
Gay? Lesbian? Then you are relegated to a second-class status. In Trump’s “Great” America, it’s okay to not provide service to a gay man. It’s okay to prohibit a lesbian couple from adopting a child. And don’t even think about serving in THIS military. I guess THOSE were the days. THAT’S when America was “Great.”
Their disdain for Mexicans also runs deep. So deep, they’re willing to round up 11million people and physically remove them from America. And for the more Mexican, Mexican-Americans – you know, the faux Americans that received their passport at the birth of their anchor baby – They want to completely remove the 14th Amendment from the Constitution.
These are just a handful of the positions made by the current Republican front-runner. To be fair, SOME “establishment” GOP leaders are scrambling in an attempt to prevent Trump’s victory. But it’s a tight rope to walk when a HUGE majority of Republican constituents support Trump. This only exemplifies the delusion of GOP leaders. They are trying to run away from the ideologies and values that the party created; at the very least, a majority of the GOP leaders sat by and did nothing – said NOTHING. When previous candidates spewed the same poison or when their supporters spit the same venom, they sat by benefiting. They were enablers. This IS your party now. This IS whom you represent. You can’t run away from who you are. ("You can try to change but that's just the top layer. "- Jay Z)
If you think about it, it makes sense. The values of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” sound great – wax poetic. But make no mistake, when the founders wrote these words, they did not mean the “Life”, “Liberty” or “Happiness” of immigrants, Blacks, gay and lesbians, women, non-Christians, and many “others.” Just because it’s called the “U.S.A.” doesn’t mean this country is for “YOU – Esé.”
It’s as if a certain segment of the population created the rules of the game; however, they didn’t mean for those rules to apply to everyone else. Now that “everyone else” is also benefiting from those very same rules, the “rules creators” are trying to change the game’s rules. It’s telling, is it not? When the rules benefit them, the Constitution is beyond contestation. But when it applies to the “others”, then to hell with THOSE sections of the Constitution. I guess that’s what Trump means when he says “Make America Great Again.” Great obviously represents a time when ONLY White men and (some) women benefited from the protection of the Constitution. America simply wasn’t created for “The Gays”, “The Blacks”, “The Mexicans”, “The Muslims”, and the “activist judges” who support them. As such, I guess they DO need to “take their country back.”
The fact of the matter is that this IS America. We are making progress and living up to the ideals that make us the greatest country. A country where everyone is free from religious persecution. Where people who may not look like me or think like me, or even believe what I believe, still have the opportunity to live the American dream. We're a melting pot. And everyday, we do try to CONTINUE making America Great - for EVERYONE.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free."