Opinion

Citizenship in modern America

Trump. There’s barely any other name in the news as often as he is. Of course, he’s the President. 

He should be covered by the media so we know his affairs, right? While that may be true, the term “bad press” comes to mind. Rarely anything positive is attached to his name, making anything he does show in a negative light. So, if you see him trending in the news, most likely he’s done something wrong in the eyes of most of the public.

The president broke the news on Twitter, his version of making announcements and his opinions, where he tweeted directly at four Democratic Congresswomen who had foreign roots. In essence, he told them that if they had problems with the country of America, they should “go back and help fix” the problems with their countries. The kicker: three of the four Congresswomen who “came from other countries” are American born citizens.

Twitter instantly posted their opinions, those supporting and those believing the tweets made were racist. #TrumpisaRacist trended all day on Twitter with tweets condemning the president for attempting to kick citizens that are not white-out simply because they are not white. Various news programs covered the tweets, reporters siding with him, stating he has a right to tell them to fix their problem in their own countries before they cause any problems in the American governmental system. Others viewed it to be very similar to the widely accepted racist remark to African Americans to “Go back to Africa.” You simply cannot tell people who live in a country that claims its main principles are accepting all and making people feel welcome that they must go back. 

In a political system that was established with the choice of ‘the people’ in mind to represent them, telling elected officials that the people deem worthy that “You can’t leave fast enough.” Seems like a complete 180 degrees turn from the Constitution of the country that encourages people to select representatives, right? Not exactly. Delegates are voted in to perform checks on the elected president so no one branch has too much power. However, the “founding fathers” while “founding” this country explicitly excluded women and all non-white people from being able to serve in the new government system they were aiming to establish. Bearing that in mind, it seems our president is doing exactly what the makers of our country’s governmental system had in mind. Seems his idea to “Make America Great Again” means reverting to the original, conservative mindset that hindered the progress of the country in the first place. 

Some people are simply biding their time until 2020 when reelection occurs, but if any real change is to occur, the masses must remember the position of the president is bigger than internal affairs. International affairs are at stake and connections with other countries are at risk of being severed if we choose not to remedy the non-filtered power that is given to our presidential position.