Over the last several weeks, I have seen blog after blog and report after report slamming Donald Trump (yet again) over his "Make America Great Again" slogan. I can understand the reasons why people are so very against this slogan and I feel their offense is unfounded and stemming from a misunderstanding that; no, people are not out to destroy your way of life (although those same people wish to strip others of their rights such as guns and freedom of speech - but that's another post altogether).
This post was brought on by my recent viewing of Scandal Season 5 Episode 20 ("Trump Card") [episode title is a double meaning!]. In this episode, Hollis Doyle (Scandal's billionaire businessman running for president) is being dragged through the mud. Hollis is intended to be a mirror of Donald Trump. Shonda Rimes (an outspoken supporter of Hiliary and the BLM movement) is firmly against Donald Trump and his run for president. Thusly, she embellished Hollis Doyle to become what she believes to be the true face of the evil, sexist, racist, bigotted, immoral, etc. Donald Trump. For the following quote, simply replace Hollis Doyle with Donald Trump and you will see the summation of what I am debating here today. Everything in this fictional character's speech, mirrors all the negative notions and claims against Mr. Trump.
"Hollis Doyle is a disgusting piece of trash.A relic. A man, like many other white men who have had a free run at prosperity and opprotunity. For whom discrimination and injustice are as foreign to them as the Muslim immigrants that they want to ban from our country. And now that they don't have a free run, they're lashing out. To be honest, I can't believe it took him blatently expressing his racism for you all to start asking these damn questions.
He ends every speech with 'Dare to be great again!'. Huh? What? Should we return to slavery? Jim Crowe? In today's America my gay friends can get married. In today's America, I can vote. Fifty years ago, in Hollis Doyle's lifetime, that wasn't the case. In today's America, my parents don't have to recruit a white couple that worked along side them at the cereal plant to apply for a mortgage because banks wouldn't lend to folks with brown skin. In today's America, we have the Brandon Bill; which means, I may not have to tell my future son that he could be murdered by law-enforcement just for asking why he was pulled over.
Black Lives do matter, because young black people are under attack. Immigrants, too! The fact that Doyle insists on saying that All Lives Matter when talking about this movement really pisses me off. It's like walking up into someone else's funeral and screaming, 'Why are you not crying for my daddy? He's dead, too.' Well, yes he is, and that is sad. But, that is not the topic of the conversation. Go stand over there and let the adults talk.
Hollis Doyle is a thug. A Punk. And the people who support him are thugs or punks. Or they condone his behavior. They are not Americans. The idea that this country belongs to one kind of person is the least American idea that anyone has every had. In fact it is the opposite of the ideals of this nation. Nothing needs to be restored. Nothing needs to made great again. We are a better Nation than we were 20 years ago. Than we were 50 years ago. Than we were 100 years ago. Than we were at our founding. That is the point of America. We are a country where we are always greater than our past.
I am proud to live in a nation where a black man has a legitimate shot at the white house. That is American greatness."
Topic One: The Privileged Whitey and Their "Free-Run"
Without saying it, the accusation that anyone whom is white and upset at the condition of America is strictly upset because they're not the center of attention like they have been for 275 years, and must now compete with persons who are black, latino, asian, and whatever other ethnicity is not called white. The reason people are offended by the BLM movement and any other organization promoting a non-white persons is because they no longer have the "free run" or "easy ride" through life anymore.
To that I say, the Irish are so very thankful for their free and easy ride - being the pastiest of white-folk. I could not begin to imagine what their lives of slavery (equal or greater to the African American Slave Era) would have been like, had they not been white.
Topic Two: Again?
This is the sticking point of the slogan. People accuse by saying we cannot look backwards, and that no one can quite pin point which "era" of American history in which to return. Because this entire phrase is misunderstood, the nay sayers begin offering their own suggestions. Like in the work of fiction, it has been suggested that maybe we should go back to slavery, or severe acts of violence on people, or when people who were homosexual had less rights, which leads us to the civil war or post-Korean War eras. Others say things like, pre-9/11 or the last time the economy was fantastic - which leads us to the Clinton era.
The intended perception (as I perceive it as a non-racist, pro-life, pro-2nd, white Christian woman) is that we start ranking America among the superpowers, again. It does not mean jump in a time machine and transplant an entire era exactly as it was. It means to have America placed back on the list of top nations.
The education of this country is deplorable. It is not necessary for students to know how to write in cursive and it is acceptable for a large population of early 20-somethings to be on SSI because they don't know how to read or write and are not being made to better themselves adult-education facilities. It would be absurd for us to think that someone who is illiterate is capable of working on a road crew or turning a sign that says "Stop" or "Slow". There are people I personally know on SSI, who watch the children of friends as long as the friends don't try and sign up for the government assisted child care program that will PAY the person on SSI (yes, employee these people). Why don't sign up for it? Because then they will lose their SSI benefits. They make their friend pay them upwards of 900$ a month for watching three kids (parents must provide food too), so they can make the 900 plus their 800 from the "gob-mint" VS the child care support that will just cover the 900 for the other struggling family. Today's America is one where ~109,631,000 are receiving government assistance (SSI/SNAP/Cash Assistance/LIHEP, etc) and 105,862,000 people worked full-time in the USA. [NOTE: I understand that children and seniors are listed among the 109billion; however, I also believe that if you cannot take care of your own children, you need to give them to people who can - Uncle Sam is not your baby-daddy... also, retired citizens should not retire unless they can afford it.] If we stopped to educate our children, or demanded that those on SSI or other disabilities better themselves through education, our country would be a much BETTER place.
The economy is in the toilet. Inflation is on the rise, Unemployment is only down because people on it have spent too much time on it and have fallen off the "claimable" list. And then after a year of working, they "get fired" and hop on UE for another 13-26 weeks. The minimum wage is not the problem, it is the work ethic of the country. The country's deficits and debt are astronomical and government spending is absurd. Today's America is an America where as a country we are floundering. Instead of unchecked, unsupervised, unregulated UE, how about we put men and women to work for the government like during the Great Depression building things and cleaning things in order to receive their UE check. Not only would the government be getting something out of the people it's freely paying, it would get projects like bridges and renovations completed. That would surely make our country BETTER.
Our technology and drive to push scientific boundaries is severely decayed over the decades. Bringing the the forefront of technology BACK to America would make our country BETTER.
Our healthcare system stinks! Obama-care, for all its fantastic ideas - low premiums, open access to health care providers, employers taking care of their employees, they fell short and pushed the country further into economic crisis.
The AGAIN is not referring to stepping back in time to an era which homophobia, bigotry, racism, sexism, and all the other bad ism's ran a muck - we wouldn't be stepping any further back than a day or two ago. It refers to returning America to a state of power where it is once AGAIN greater than other countries - not because we are America, but because we are actually a greater place.
It just so happens that AGAIN must be achieved through closing our borders - we can't support and care for our own citizens, removing people from assistance who have been free-riding it for so long, stopping the government from spending needlessly, and so many MANY things proposed through the GOP, and specifically the Trump Campaign.
Topic Three: The Perception of BLM
Keeping this to a minimum, the BLM Movement has become the new form of "Black Power" in America. It is a supremacy group, and anyone who says that the message is not being misunderstood must realize this truth - perception is truth. BLM supporters are enraged when they are met with the phrase "_____ Lives Matter" in response to their rhetoric. They say responding with ALL or BLUE or RED or whatever Lives Matter is detracting from an epidemic of violence against the African American population. The message is that there is an implied "too" at the end of the BLM title. This is a creative response to the dog-whistle politics being played by this movement. The perceived truth is that ONLY BLM, and not BLM, too. This perceived truth is supported by the BLM leaders and supporters ENCOURAGING violence against people, businesses, police, and anyone else who is not black.
In the speech above, the example is given in Shonda's stab to Donald Trump, "It's like walking up into someone else's funeral and screaming, 'Why are you not crying for my daddy? He's dead, too.' " The BLM Movement and their negative rhetoric are the ones bursting into all of our lives saying "why don't you care that my life sucks too?". Excuse me, but it would be racist of me to say that all your problems are because you are black and not because of dealing drugs, shoplifting, destruction of property, and all the other mistakes you have chosen to make in life. It's okay to be "Bout Dat Lyfe" until you actually have to live that life - you can't have it both ways. Act like a thug, live like a thug, accept the consequences of the thug lifestyle - whether you are black, white, yellow, purple, blue, or green. It's not because you are black its because you are an idiot.
Topic Four: We ARE A Better America
I fully agree that the late-20th and early-21st centuries have had a tremendous impact on the progression of our social culture. More and more people are gaining the rights that every person should be able to enjoy. Voting, working (and for fair equal wages), being able to be "who you are" and not get denied use of whatever restroom or bakery you see fit. Yes, in the last 240 years we have become a better country with inclusive-to-more-of-our-own-citizens laws. What would make the current social climate even better is if hate speech would not be used when accusing people of using hate speech. [Whitey won't let me eat in their diner because I'm chinese, or Chink won't hire me because I'm black and drooping is how I express myself] In these examples, the government would fight against the diner owner and the business person - but those who were denied can use racial and ethnic slurs in their description of their "abusers".
Hypocacy is the ONLY thing stopping our current social climate from being the best in history. Christians who condemn sinners yet continue sinning in the same way themselves, ethnic groups who refer to other ethnic groups by derogatory slurs but demand that they be respected, Politicians who call for us to embrace equality and the freedoms spelled out for everyone in the Constitution but are pushing for the obliteration of rights that could pose a threat to themselves when they begin their coup.
We may be better, but we are not great by any stretch of the imagination.
ULTIMATELY...
Because people choose to see racism and hatred before anything else, we are left here screaming that a man is a bigot and racist and sexist and unamerican; instead of seeing that he wants his country to be the greatest ever - all eras wrapped into one and exemplifying a culmination of American history.
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