Far too often, I hear concessions being made for President Trump. They expect so little from him that anything vaguely presidential or even somewhat professional comes off as groundbreaking and dynamic. When he gives speeches that don’t end in rambling screaming, people applaud his “presidential nature,” as though that’s something he should be complemented on and not part of his job description. Recently, someone told me that “Trump may be a racist sometimes, but it’s just politics, right?”
Wrong. Politics, while ultimately a forgettable concept, remains an inherent part of the person themselves. It defines the boundaries and rules by which a person governs themselves, and the public representation of that appears in the form of our public officers. Politics is so often indivisible from the personality itself that it can be difficult to interact with those who have differing politics than us. This is not to say that we cannot concede and change our point of view based on others, but, rather, to express that we cannot and must not ignore politics. We cannot ignore it because it is what Donald Trump thrives upon.
Donald Trump’s popularity, as I have seen it, stems from people asking others to ignore his “racist” or “sexist” behaviors, which begs the question: are you suggesting that these clear aspects of his platform and personality are unimportant? Are you suggesting that we should ignore the president’s clear support for white supremacy and patriarchy? These are vital aspects to his political figure and therefore an inherent part of his personal beliefs. This is precisely why we cannot ignore the clear racism that exists amidst his administration, exemplified through Trump’s comments regarding black cities, his criticism of African-Americans being unpatriotic, and other such inexcusable comments. These comments represent his true self, or the politics that guide his presidency and intentions.
It is important for us to keep this concept in mind because the length of his presidency has caused people to forget his previous offenses and has led to the acceptance of such as the status quo. If we let ourselves get used to what Donald Trump believes in, we let ourselves believe that his actions and beliefs aren’t hurtful to minorities and America as a whole. We let ourselves think that Donald Trump’s flawed view of the world doesn’t hurt certain groups of America, thereby making it impossible for real change to occur.
