Trump has a habit of saying things that make Americans furious, even before we elected him as the face of our country. Whether his comments have been sexist, racist, discriminatory or just plain old derogatory, each one brings his character into question.
Moreover, his comments bring the character of the entire country, especially the people who voted for him, into question. Why would they elect a man like this? Why would a party even nominate a man like this for president? Why would anyone want a racist, sexist, homophobic and discriminatory man as the face of our country?
But not only is Trump all these things, he also does little to conceal any of it, causing some of the people who follow him to believe it’s okay to be this way and become racist, sexist, homophobic and discriminatory too.
Trump has received backlash for years about his character, his policies, his ideas and more. But normally this backlash has been in small amounts where the it isn’t powerful enough to be effective.
However, recently, there has been backlash that may be powerful enough to make a difference. After the longest shutdown in government history, caused by Trump’s inability to compromise on the funding for his notorious wall, Trump issued a state of emergency, which would give him the necessary funds to build his wall. Backlash quickly came from 16 states who filed lawsuits to stand up against the unnecessary national emergency.
Although this could be the start of something big, I question why more states haven’t followed suit and filed similar lawsuits.
The New York Times compiled information from the polls about Trump’s wall from various sources, showing a consistent trend that a majority of Americans disapprove of the wall. With a majority of Americans disapproving of the wall, why aren’t the representatives of these people standing up for them?
American people elected these public officials to fight for their rights and their beliefs. My state, my county, my city, my friends, my family and I voted for people to fight for our rights and our beliefs. We voted for people we thought would best serve our interest. So, it is only plausible we get infuriated when our representatives don’t fight for us and repeatedly don’t do so.
But rather than just stay angry at our officials for not standing up for their people, we should use that anger to motivate us to vote for and elect better people and better officials. We should use that anger to motivate us to educate ourselves about candidates in order to vote for representatives who best represent us. We should use that anger to motivate us into making our vote count for not only a number on a ballot but within each one of us as difference makers in the world.
By using our right to vote, we can pick better public officials who will represent us better, so one day soon, we will have representatives who stand up against a discriminatory president. By using our right to vote, we can elect a president who sees all people as equal and represents each person in the United States as such.
