In an effort to support students’ opinions on both sides of this emotional discussion, the GrassBurr Co-Editor, Madalyn Harris, author of the editorial piece “I’m Not On The #TrumpTrain, Here’s Why”, has invited an editorial from the “other side of the aisle”. This editorial was written by senior Rachel Knesek. GrassBurr supports these student writers and their opinions, and it has a true appreciation for their passion.
We can all agree that a majority of this campaign has been about scandals, slander and personal attacks on both candidates. Many consider Donald Trump to be a racist bigot who hates immigrants and women. These statements, however, are mainly the result of trendy opinions and instinctive groans at the sound of Trump’s voice encouraged by the biased far left media. When Trump protesters are asked about these allegations, they repeat the well known chant without backing it up. Monkey see, monkey hates Trump. With the logic of these claims, he must hate his wife Melania Trump and many of his employees. With this logic, he must greatly dislike the women that make up 28% of the staff and fill many of the highly ranked positions in his organization.
A major discussion point has been Trumps relationship with women. Hillary is all too pleased to extend a compassionate hand to the accusers of harassment and sexism by Trump but turned a blind eye and a cold shoulder when it was her own husband. His statements about women were uncalled for but were merely statements and should not even compare to Clinton’s actions. Of course we’re all tired of hearing about emails and scandals about Hillary, but why brush it off as “just another scandal”? Donna Brazile gave Hillary campaign advanced information on the questions that were to be asked during the presidential debate but, ironically, Clinton still struggled to provide straight answers.
While some of Trump’s words allow these arguments of intolerance, his actions speak another language. During a campaign rally, a woman by the name of Betsy Sharp spoke about how Donald Trump had paid off her mother’s $300,000 mortgage after her father’s death in 1986. In another instance in 1995, a married couple found Trump’s stopped limo and decided to help fix the flat tire. When Trump asked how he should repay them, the man suggested some flowers for his wife. So the flowers arrived but, to their surprise, included a note that said, “We’ve paid off your mortgage”.
As previously stated many see Trump as a racist bigot; this however is fundamentally untrue. He wants to establish new controls on immigration to protect American citizens from attack. The key to this policy is to PREVENT attack; not allow anyone and everyone into the country UNTIL we get attacked, then immediately scramble for safety. Would we rather be called racist while still alive or be admired for our compassion from six feet under? Many of Trump’s most criticized policies on immigration like the wall and deporting eleven million on day one may be a bit exaggerated. But the idea is there to better secure borders and encourage legal immigration. Many have taken note to Trump’s statements that illegal immigrants are “criminals and rapists”. While the “rapists” part may have been a broad assumption, the “criminal” aspect is very true. It is not racist to call an illegal immigrant a criminal hence the word illegal. An illegal act has been committed and under the eyes of Trump, the police and the law, the illegals are criminals. Using data collected in the SCAAP system for 2009, an average share of 5.4 percent of the prisoners in state and local prisons were criminal aliens. The share was more than double that average in California (12.7%) and Arizona (11.7%). Another seven states also had criminal alien shares higher than the national average. They were: Oregon, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New York, New Jersey, and Texas. From these statistics it’s clearly evident that many of these illegals coming across the border are indeed criminals. Proving Trump right that “Mexico is not sending it’s best people”. The argument against illegal immigration is not a racist one, but rather an argument of loving your own people. We are American citizens, our country is America, so why should we accept people who make this nation worse for all people? America isn’t a white nation, but rather a diverse nation. There are people of all races here, so stopping illegal immigration, which benefits all races, is not a racist thing.
Another argument made against Trump is that he bought his way through life, and that he’s greedy for not paying taxes. According to 26 U.S. Code § 162 – Trade or business expenses “In the case of any publicly held corporation, no deduction shall be allowed under this chapter for applicable employee remuneration with respect to any covered employee to the extent that the amount of such remuneration for the taxable year with respect to such employee exceeds $1,000,000”. What does this mean you may ask? This means that if you are making over a certain amount then you don’t have to pay taxes; once you’re making above that amount. Trump fit into this category, and found many other loopholes. This makes Trump a smart businessman; not greedy. No-one wants to pay taxes that they don’t have to: I certainly don’t. Trump has only had 6 bankrupt businesses,The Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Castle ,Trump Plaza and Casino, Plaza Hotel,Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts, Trump Entertainment Resorts , but has had 509 successful businesses. This further proves how, business wise, Trump is smart. He was given a “small loan of a million dollars”, as he said, but he has made that million into billions.
Many say that “America is already great”, but this notion is false. According to Fair Reports: “the American education system isn’t even in the top 10 of world rankings”. The US debt clock shows that we are 19 trillion in debt, and as Trading Economics reported “our economic growth rate is less than 3%”. We have a health care system in which premiums have skyrocketed by 22%, as reported by CNN, for all Americans. Even Bill Clinton called Obamacare the “craziest thing in the world”; if a rapist can see that such a system sucks why can’t Barack Obama and Hillary supporters? America isn’t great anymore, and that’s the sad truth. We have a slow and sluggish economy, and we have more debt than ever; that’s not great.When people can’t get jobs; that’s not great. Most countries beating us in education isn’t a great thing either. Donald Trump has promised to bring our economy back to a powerhouse, and to fix our educational system as well. Hillary Clinton has had 30 years to do this, and yet here we are in a not great America.
Another argument is that the electoral college is unfair, and that we need to move back to a more democratic popular vote. However America wasn’t founded on Democracy, but rather it is a Republic. As Madison stated, in the federalist papers, “An elected despotism [Democracy] was not the government we fought for.”. Even the more libertarian Thomas Jefferson stated; “Democracy is nothing more than mob rule.”. The American Republic doesn’t need Democracy, because as John Adams stated; “Democracy never lasts long, it soon wastes and decays”. In order to actually have all votes matter, and not just large cities, the electoral college must remain to benefit all members of America; not just the majority who will easily strip away the rights of others. The American Republic must endure, and it cannot do so without the electoral college.
Many say that we have a culture that is oppressive to minorities, and women, and that there is a “glass ceiling” preventing their rise. First we’ll address the obvious lie in American society; that women are oppressed and that a wage gap exists. The BLS calculates that “the gender or wage gap fails to factor in work hours, education, and capital occupation, individual experience, and career interruptions” and the BLS also stated that “all studies that show a wage gap do not control for many factors that can be significant in explaining earnings differences.”. Clearly when we actually factor in things like work hours, education, and those other things that BLS has stated we see that the wage gap falls to just five percentage points, as reported by the Heritage Foundation. This five percentage points goes either way depending upon what job, or career is examined. As for the minorities part a glass ceiling does exist, but this is due to bad trade deals and the forgotten American inner cities. Take Detroit for example, once a powerhouse for producing cars, it now is a deteriorating wreck. Full of crime, gangs, and a whole host of other problems. According to the council of foreign relations, “the US auto sector lost some 350,000 jobs since 1994-a third of the industry-while Mexican auto sector employment spiked from 120,000 to 550,000 workers”, due to NAFTA. Perhaps if we make better trade deals, like Donald J Trump wants, then we can restore our inner cities and eliminate the glass ceiling that exists in America for minorities.
In short America isn’t great anymore, and we have many disparities in our nation. We lose in trade, education, and we fall short on our immigration policies. There are some good aspects still left, like the electoral college, that keep our nation afloat, but overall we have been weakened. We’ve been weakened by the policies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and Trump is a counter to these failed policies. As Michael Moore stated, “They [the average person] will go to the polls and put a big f*** red x right next to Trump’s name.” The American people said no to the status quo, they said no to the establishment, and they’ve said yes to putting America first.