The current political climate in the United States has created some interesting trends in the social order. A vast majority of those trends are related to the upcoming presidential election and the subsequent campaigns that have been bombarding the public with both incredible truths and outright lies. Perhaps the most volcanic candidate of this election cycle is the notorious Donald Trump, a figure who once adorned the nation’s televisions as he sat behind a desk and fired people on his reality show. For those of you unfamiliar with The Apprentice, that was roughly the full scope of Trump’s involvement with the show.
Today, Donald Trump is one of the two primary contenders to become President of the United States, yet his attitude is one you might expect from the leader of certain cults. He uses misinformation, fear, and leading remarks to convey a message that is not only inaccurate, but dangerous to the public. His comments have brought about a new trend in many areas of the country, and that trend isn’t exactly healthy for the majority of Americans.
Donald Trump is well-known for his hateful speech that tends to target a specific group of people, and his recent target has been Muslims. Such highly charged comments spoken for the entire country to see has created, or possibly reinvigorated, a movement that many intellectuals and modern thinkers assumed to be strictly part of the past. His language has brought racists, white supremacists, and even neo-Nazis out from under their respective rocks and into the public eye via social media and the news.
A prime example of this was recently sighted driving down a highway in Oregon. The vehicle was a solid black Toyota Tacoma with a modification to the bed and rear of the truck. The bed had been fitted with a large walled cage, effectively transforming the back of the vehicle into a driving billboard. On the outer walls of the box, the vehicle was adorned with several highly inflammatory images and some offensive language. The left hand side of the box was painted with half of a swastika, the standard symbol for Nazi extremists.
The rear of the box, which would be visible to any vehicles following behind the truck, was painted with a short message that read ‘Jew Lies Matter’. It is nearly impossible to disconnect the message of this truck with the language used by Donald Trump, regardless of whether the candidate intended for such a connection to exist. His brazen disregard for the public interest has created a social environment where racists finally feel like they can express their disgusting, dangerous beliefs to the public.
David Duke, former KKK Grand Wizard, has been quoted as saying that Trump would ‘make Hitler great again’. Many different Nazi-affiliated groups on the internet have praised Trump for his rhetoric, calling him their new savior. What is possibly the most disturbing aspect of these events is that Trump is fully aware of his popularity within the neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements, yet he continues with his vitriolic language and shows no signs of denouncing the support of these groups.
The way Donald Trump treats the American people is almost exactly the opposite of what the founding fathers intended for this great nation. America was founded under the ideas of community, acceptance, and tolerance. Of course, those ideals haven’t exactly been upheld throughout the history of the United States, but at least during those times there was an edifice of responsibility. Trump is going a totally different direction with his campaign, one that the founding fathers would undoubtedly not approve. It should be assumed that his victory in November would only worsen his attitude, not lessen it.