The mass-produced Donald Trump slogan, “Let’s Make America Great Again” has been shared, tweeted and embroidered on millions of red baseball caps over the course of the last year. The premise of the now president-elect’s campaign motto hints at the notion that at one point in the past, America had achieved a utopia-like state where all was good and well.
No, this is not another article directly bashing Donald Trump, because there are millions of those scattered around the net. Even as his presidential win was a devastating blow for myself and the millions of Americans who did not vote for Trump, his campaign slogan begs the question: when was America ever “great”?
Perhaps it was when Christopher Columbus first found the patch of land that he mistakenly thought was India and went on to fulfill mass injustices to the Native American inhabitants of that land. Or perhaps it was in 1857 when America decided that people of African descent should be “imported into the United States and be held as slaves.” Maybe it was during the century that followed, even after the Declaration of Independence, when African Americans were continuously socially oppressed and racially attacked. Or perhaps it was when women were marginally oppressed and denied the right to vote until the 1920’s. Maybe America was considered “great” when it devalued homosexual relationships to nothing more than a poor lifestyle choice.
Now, one could argue that this article only highlights the undeniable injustices that America has partaken in, that it only glances at America in a negative light. Many nations, Canada included, have made catastrophic errors throughout the course of history. However, there has never been a desire to “refute back to our old ways,” when our nation was “great.”
It almost appears that this notion of “great” is to restore a certain wealth of power that has repeatedly only benefited a select group of individuals. Currently with countless laws and regulations in place to help the poor and socially oppressed, the sole benefactors of this original oppression, may feel that their nation is devolving and is no longer “great” anymore. This is a flaw in logic and error that Trump’s campaign may knowingly or unknowingly be perpetuating, that promotes this need for a “cultural restart.” It does not mean that every Trump supporter is a racist, sexist homophobe, but it does question the weight and use of the word “great.”
I do not believe in making America “great” again because that insinuates a back-peddling of all the progress that has been made. America has made miraculous breakthroughs legally, socially and economically. It has strived to do revolutionary things that other nations are not capable of, which is precisely why it deserves so much scrutiny. I believe America can be great.