The following message is not entirely positive, but it’s real and necessary. My intent is not tear down the new president, but to remain honest about who he is, what his campaign is still doing to this country and express some hope at the end.
If you, dear reader, promise to keep an open mind, I will do the same.
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It’s true that the deepest part of my id wants the new president’s administration to implode and the GOP to be left more shattered than they were after Bush’s eight years in office. I admit this as a selfish fancy, one motivated by my own bias and narrative, but I feel it needs to be on the table, even if I don’t want it to be true. It’s just a sentiment that represents my anger.
First and foremost, I don’t blame Trump’s supporters for his election. He spoke, you listened and were motivated, and he won. That’s the way it works. In this, there are no hard feelings. So, please believe me when I say I don’t want Trump to fail. That would be selfish of me and it would do this country, and the world, no good if he did.
Before we move on, however, let’s set the record straight. No amount of success is going to wipe away the sort of person Trump is. Nothing he does over the next four years should make us respect him as a person. He deserves none of that, but our respect isn’t needed to do his job.
He ran a campaign on some of the most divisive and vitriolic rhetoric we’ve seen in a presidential campaign in generations. His plan, which worked quite effectively, was to stir up the sort of anger, racism, sexism, xenophobia and fear many people claimed was a thing of the past.
He didn’t create this sentiment among us. He exposed it, normalizing and legitimizing its existence. It became integral to his campaign.
It may not have started with his demonizing Mexican immigrants as mostly criminals, which isn’t true, but that moment sticks out.
In the ensuing months, he didn’t explicitly tell his supporters to attack certain groups, but his rhetoric stirred up bigoted sentiments and violence towards Muslims, gays, immigrants, minorities and even plain detractors.
He did encourage his supporters to beat up protestors at his rallies, though, and many, not all, happily obliged.
He also openly made fun of a reporter with a disability.
He belittled women throughout his campaign, calling them pigs and rating them. He accused Megan Kelly of bleeding out of her “wherever” because she was asking him hard questions. He even remarked that his opponent was “such a nasty woman” during a national televised debate.
He’s admitted to forcing himself on women, purposely walking in on underage girls getting dressed for beauty pageants he owns, and laughing it off while he grabbed them by their genitals.
It’s okay folks. When you’re famous, they let you do it.
I suppose we should overlook personal character flaws when we elect a leader, but there’s more to it.
He’s lied or made up just about everything he’s said and deals far more in conspiracy theories, more likely to be found in tabloids, than in facts.
He is a science skeptic and denies the overwhelming evidence for climate change; it’s ostensibly a hoax engineered by the Chinese.
I urge you to fact check all this as I did.
What about the thousands of Muslims cheering in New Jersey when the World Trade towers fell? No, it never happened, but we glossed over that, too.
He won’t disclose his tax returns, is likely lying about his wealth and lost nearly a billion dollars of investor’s money in the mid-1990’s. He filed for bankruptcy, writing off his losses and had us taxpayers bail him out via the government. Afterwards, he proceeded to not pay federal income tax for nearly two decades.
You and me, dear reader, would never be able to do that.
Several of his “successful” business ventures have tanked thousands of contractors and other employees, leaving them high and dry.
He’s refused to pay other contractors for their work, taking them to court instead, when they wanted their money.
And…all those immigrants he wants to deport? He employed and abused people like them because of their tenuous worker status in our country.
His excuse for screwing over people as he takes them to court is that they must’ve not been winners like himself.
This is what he calls gaming the system.
I could go on but I think you get the point.
This is not just meant as an angry rant about president-elect Trump, especially when we need unity. We do need to come together, but we need to understand Trump and be honest about what he did to get elected. He swindled us, inciting our worst instincts and we still put him into office.
Neither am I suggesting that his administration will enact racist, bigoted laws that persecute certain groups of people, but I fear that the movement surrounding him will endanger people who don’t fit into the old white hegemony.
I now fear for my biracial daughter, women and minority groups in this new America. My fear is not unfounded—his campaign has made it real.
I would implore my fellow Americans to remember these facts in the coming days,and resist brushing it off. This man has done some serious damage, but this is his moment to redirect our collective hate and rage. We must hope that the office he will soon occupy will encourage him to be far more than who he was and is.
So, the game is over Mr. Trump and you won. It’s time for you to leave the ridiculous celebrity behind and become president.
I don’t want you to fail, but neither can I forget who you are.
Your move, Mr. President.
Sincerely,
A concerned father and citizen
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Photo credit: Getty Images
“Trump is. Nothing he does over the next four years should make us respect him as a person.”
Interesting what progressives believe is irredeemable. Murder some one and they’ll demand parole at some point or at least a chance at it. We need to see what the person had made of themselves in prison. Demand we control our borders, unforgivable.
Maybe you should stay away from Fox, The National Review, and Breitbart… Might give you some perspective. Read some independent science, too.
It is shocking to me that a demagogue was elected to be president of our nation. As a citizen, I am saddened that this man’s hatred resonated with so many voters, and as an environmental science major pursuing my master’s, I am horrified by the death warrant signed for the world on 11/09. The damage he will inflict will be irreversible. Unfortunately, however, he really ensnared the uneducated white vote with glittering generalities and populist propaganda. Fortunately, the majority of educated white voters as well as minorities of all walks did not vote for him. The people as a whole… Read more »
To you comments on the environment, it really may be up the rest of the world to maintain the status quo, and indeed, ramp preservation/ clean energy initiatives. The GOP and Trump want to open up protected land to oil, gas, and coal. While I’m not naive to think that we can quit fossil fuels cold turkey, Obama, and the rest of the scientific establishment, have the right of it- we need to move away from them as quickly as we can. Besides, from an economic standpoint, being addicted to fossil fuels for another hundred years isn’t feasible. With the… Read more »
I think you should ask yourself WHY he was elected by so many people, despite you consider him a disgusting and dangerous human. Maybe you should look to the other side as well. For sure Hillary Clinton is rejected by many voters out of various reasons. It’s not just black/white, Trump is the ‘devil’ and Hillary is the ‘saint’. Anyway, the winner of this election is Trump for the next 4 years. I also find the poster DUMB = KKK TRUMP Racista on the top of your article not very convincing, if you ask me and I am sure many… Read more »
” Nothing he does over the next four years should make us respect him as a person. He deserves none of that, but our respect isn’t needed to do his job.” “Respect has nothing to do with the person you’re respecting but instead shows who the person is who is doing the respecting. I respect people because they are human beings. There is value in everyone and I respect them because it’s who I am, not who they are. Your inability and outright refusal to ever respect him tells me lot about who you are. You have decided to judge… Read more »
I think you’ve missed the point. Trump has proven that he cares nothing for anyone; it’s all about his own self-interest. He’s admitted to screwing people over, dismisses his own privilege, doesn’t understand minority communities at all, who are likely to suffer more than anyone under the his administration, used America’s latent racism and xenophobia to get elected, and bragged about being a sexual predator. I’m not making this up- maybe you should do some research before you praise this man. He doesn’t care about you or your struggles. And, this isn’t about being slighted, it’s about electing a man… Read more »
He NEVER got a pass … didn’t you watch Hillary’s campaign? You don’t watch the main stream media? You have’t read the articles here at GMP? You, as countess others drank the Kool Aid and that’s fine but there comes a point that you have to move outside your comfort zone. Countless women and minorities voted for him, haven’t you wondered why? Haven’t you wondered why the main stream media was so wrong? It’s simple, they didn’t buy into the BS they’ve put out for years. People are waking up, they researched beyond what the main stream put out. In… Read more »
Many people weren’t paying attention to him and they thought all the dangerous rhetoric was just bluster- language used to motivate people. He even said it himself on 60 minutes, “Sometimes you have to use that kind of rhetoric to get people motivated”. We should then wonder why were so many people motivated by such angry, hateful speech? Look, you don’t have to sift through liberally biased websites to get a sense as to why people are angry at this election. Go back and listen to his interviews and his debates. Or, the sorts of things he was caught saying… Read more »
“Many people weren’t paying attention to him and they thought all the dangerous rhetoric…” Are you freaking kidding me? This statement alone tells me where your head is at. Where have you been for the past year? He’s and what he’s said has been front page news EVERY day. What people did see through this year is the scam the media has played for countless years. What people did start to do is educate themselves with truths and not allow the media to dictate to them who they should vote for. “… the poor and middle class Americans who voted… Read more »
I think we’re talking past eachother at this point, each trying to parse a “truth” from our relative narratives. While I don’t consider myself to be far left, I make no effort to hide the fact that I’m more liberal minded, so maybe you think all I do is inundate myself with liberal propaganda- thus my opinion on Trump. I think if you were being fair, all you would have to do is listen to everything he’s said and take a look at his business record to divine what he’s really about. That he’s screwed over countless contractors and employees… Read more »
Matthew Koehler
1 day 12 hours ago
I think you’ve missed the point. Trump has proven that he cares nothing for anyone; it’s all about his own self-interest.
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This does not change the fact that he was chosen by about the half of voters as their candidate.
It seems he cares about US-citizens. Many share his self-interest.
For example, about deporting about 2 to 3 million illegal immigrants, what’s wrong with that? These people should not be within US territory.