Make America great again? I thought America was great. In the 20 years that I have been alive, many changes have been made to our government to make America great for more of its citizens. In recent history many Acts and Amendments have been made to our Constitution. Roe v. Wade, legalization of same sex marriage, and the closing of the gender wage gap are tremendous steps that have been made in the last three decades to make America greater. The election of Donald Trump puts all of these advancements, and many more, in danger.
From my perspective, the people who seem to support Donald Trump are affluent, white college men. You can find these men wearing their “Make America Great Again” hats while shot-gunning beers at college tailgates. This is what concerns me. The election of Donald Trump encourages the objectification of women, and tells young men that it is okay to view women as less than them. Trump has even tweeted: “26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military—only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”
Men and women are also put together on college campuses; the areas of this country that also have the highest rates of sexual assault. Telling college men that it is okay to sexually assault women just because they’re living close together is only going to bring on more and more ‘Brock Turner type’ cases. These connections are scary. It’s scary for women on college campuses, who are already being taught how horrible the rape culture on these campuses is. This affects us, college girls, and that’s what is so unsettling.
The election of Donald Trump is also scary because of those whom I have in my life that are a part of the LGBTQ community. Trump and Pence are both openly homophobic. Pence even signed an Amendment that would make it legal to put people applying for a same sex marriage license in jail, and another that wanted to ban same sex marriage all together. The day that same sex marriage was legalized, it opened so many doors for so many people. Trump openly supporting his hatred for this community encourages the hatred that causes acts like Orlando to occur again. It’s another setback that could now occur in our country.
America is great. Yes we are pretty broken right now, and we will always have problems, but that doesn’t make us bad. It’s sad that after eight years of having our first historically black president, we can’t make history again with having our first woman. But these next four years, and how we choose to handle them, will determine whether or not America stays great. Being inclusive of your fellow citizens and voicing your opinion on issues is just the bare minimum of what we should all be doing.