Part 1: She was warned…
The number of times that I have thought ‘This is why people need to study history. This is why people need to read anything. This is why people need education’ is far too high. Add it together with the number of times I thought that between 2016 and 2020, and the number is too high to consider. The problem is that I knew it was going to be a thought that I had repeatedly this year, since the inauguration in January. It’s not like it was a long time ago that Trump wreaked havoc on the US and the world. It was a four year gap. I think my mistake was thinking that people would learn. And yet, somehow, people thought that having him in office was better than having a woman in office. Or they genuinely think he’s a good president, in which case…sorry, but even if that is technically an opinion question, your opinion is incorrect.
See, Donald Trump really dislikes poor people, people of a different race, different sex, and people who are different from rich, white men. Which, unfortunately, is a vast majority of us. A lot of people are going to be outraged by what I am about to say, and that’s okay. Because here’s the thing: if you go pick up a history book (or Google it, if you don’t want to lower yourself to pick up a book, it’s on your phone), the conclusion is obvious. Trump is a fascist who would love to be a dictator like Adolf Hitler was.
We’ve all heard the quote about not studying history and being doomed to repeat it. Clearly, some of us missed some lessons because if you had been paying attention, he’s checking a lot of the boxes for a racist, sexist, overreaching wannabe dictator. Let’s go through the list together:
Leading a cult of followers who will swallow anything he says and try to justify it by any means necessary.
Has a parade for himself.
Taking over cities, citing reasons of violence.
Doing away with the rights of minorities.
Complaining about holidays that he feels are unnecessary because they support a minority.
Doing away with birthright citizenship and deporting anyone for any reason to any place, regardless of where they are originally from.
Labor Camps = Alligator Alcatraz
Fires employees and destroys the lives of anyone who disagrees with him.
Destroying museum exhibits that he deems too ‘woke’ or, apparently, educational.
If you can look at this list and tell me that any of it isn’t the work of a man bent on painting society in an image that he thinks is perfect and getting rid of the rest of us, then I don’t know what to tell you.
This has all happened before. Somewhere around ninety years ago is an example of which most people are aware. Hitler started small, with his cult and making it seem like it wasn’t that big a deal. But he started having parades for himself, he started occupying cities (especially those that disagreed with him), he started ‘getting rid’ of immigrants, then people who followed a different religion, then people who looked and acted differently. Trump’s already made fun of people with autism. He’s already talked openly about sexually assaulting women and it being okay. There is no getting around it anymore; he’s dangerous and he’s also mentally incompetent. He can’t be allowed to continue in this way. If I end up on a watch list for this, so be it, but he shouldn’t be and cannot continue to be in power.
Back to the quote about history. There is another, less well-known but much more optimistic quote from Maya Angelou (ironically, someone Trump would absolutely despise). She had an incredibly difficult life, especially her childhood. She was an amazing poet and author, and this quote, spoken by someone who still saw the light, should give us all hope. It’s not too late; we can still make a difference; we don’t have to relive history.
“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.”
—Maya Angelou
Sources:
Maya Angelou - history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot... (n.d.). https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/maya_angelou_387255
Hitler Comes to Power: How, when, & Key Dates | Holocaust Encyclopedia. (n.d.). Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/hitler-comes-to-power#:~:text=Adolf%20Hitler%20came%20to%20power,manipulating%20the%20democratic%20political%20system.
Donald Trump appears to mock disabled reporter. (2017, February 6). [Video]. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-worst-offense-mocking-disabled-reporter-poll-finds-n627736
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