With a new election cycle, we have seen many Democrat candidates come and go; rise and decline. We have even seen Republican challengers try to take back a party that they feel has changed since President Donald Trump came into power, despite 90 percent of Republicans saying that they support the President’s job.
President Trump is not a stranger when it comes to being racist and xenophobic which is seen through his comments on African countries and the Hispaniola country, Haiti to wanting Football players of color who kneel instead of stand to the national anthem (because of police brutality) to be deemed as ‘sons of bitches’ by NFL owners. It doesn’t stop there. He also has made remarks toward the Central Park Five and committed housing discrimination when it came to African Americans.
The President is also a friend of using murder cases during his State of the Union addresses to alienate and scapegoat undocumented immigrants. Most recently, he criticized the Academy for the South Korean Academy Award-winning film, Parasite since it won Best Picture instead of the Best International Feature Film category.
The President also has members within his Cabinet that support backward ideals such as with Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Devos removed restrictions on for-profit colleges, which are known for their exploitative tactics on marginalized individuals, as well as having lower graduation rates.
Individuals who graduate from for-profit universities have higher debt than their peers who do not attend these educational institutions. The Secretary of Education also revoked the protection guideline from 2016 that called for transgender people to be covered by Title IX.
Environmental Protection Agency regulations have also been under attack, which continues to harm our environment, regardless of the US joining the One Trillion Trees Initiative.
The President has been a long opponent of not believing in climate change. He even mentions in rallies or tweets that it is a hoax.
In the beautiful Midwest, windchill temperatures are reaching minus 60 degrees, the coldest ever recorded. In coming days, expected to get even colder. People can’t last outside even for minutes. What the hell is going on with Global Waming? Please come back fast, we need you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2019
Despite all of these bad things, removing President Trump from office when it comes to the 2020 election does not solve all of the problems that exist within our country. Just like former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang says: “Trump is a symptom of a disease.”
As new conflicts have been created or old ones have resurfaced with his election, many have existed before his inception.
If we want to look at recent times, starting with an economic perspective, it goes back to the 1970s, where growth in wages has declined.
According to the Pew Research Center, Americans now have the same purchasing power that they did during the 1970s. With rent, childcare costs and health care premiums becoming more expensive, the purchasing power is not enough for many Americans. There is also the issue of corporations such as Amazon, Netflix and General Motors, not paying any taxes in 2018, while the average American pays $10,489 or 14 percent of their gross income.
Man-made climate change has been impacting us since the Industrial Revolution, with large amounts of CO2 being pushed into the atmosphere. With fracking, deforestation and the increased amounts of greenhouse gases within the atmosphere, natural disasters increase such as the fires in California and Australia, and hurricanes become much stronger causing terrible damage such as been seen through Hurricane Irma, Sandy and Dorian.
Clean water is also an issue with cities such as Flint, Michigan and St. Cloud, Florida facing discolored water or water containing lead from corrosive city pipes.
Health care is controlled by pharmaceutical companies, where medications are so expensive to the point where the United States pays more for brand-name drugs compared to other countries.
Despite the existence of Obamacare, for many individuals, the cost of health care through deductibles and premiums has increased and tax penalties are there for those who do not have health insurance, despite not being able to afford it.
While President Trump is a horrendous character who does not follow how government officials should act such as in philosophical works like Theory of Moral Sentiments, his removal is not the final destination of having a better country. This does not mean that people should not go out and vote against the President for a better leader. However, even if the President is voted out during this upcoming election, there is still plenty of work that must be done.