Donald Trump has gone from being the iconic cynical host of the Apprentice series to one of the most outspoken and publicized presidential candidates for the 2016 election. The sensationalism surrounding Trump is enticing to any journalist wanting clicks on their story, retweets on their social media, or copies of the headlines being sold. We're upset at the mindless (and seemingly endless) racist and misogynist comments vested in one man, but by continuing to give him press coverage, we're perpetuating opportunities for him to gain more and more popularity.
Only a few months ago, Trump convinced us to hate all Mexicans. He characterized one of the hardest working populations as lazy, unmotivated, taking individuals who didn't deserve a place in the country. He went as far as to propose the building of a wall between Mexico and the United States, putting a firm foot down on immigration. No solutions were given to reform the immigration process, to make it more efficient for more families to experience the opportunities of our country, but rather solutions to keep people out and to continue our unchecked hatred without question. He coined the phrase "Make America great again", but even the phrase alone is a gross manipulation for the people old enough to romanticize a time where the country was seemingly better (although let's not forget that America was still ridden with racism, economic inequality, and the lack of womens' rights).
Following the shootings, good ol' Trump has shifted the focus to the Muslim community, arguing that no Muslim should be allowed into our country. He's taking the anger of the masses and mobilizing them to a sick extent to where people feel ashamed wearing their hijab or speaking their native language in public. In a land of opportunity, we're investing press coverage and giving a voice to a man who believes in anything but.
American culture is driven by extremism, but it's time we stop giving hateful individuals more power than what they already have by giving them a voice. He claims to abstain from being politically correct, but there is a desperately important gap between political correctness and unfiltered hatred towards entire categories of people. His whole campaign is thriving on his extreme comments that are out-of-the-box horrible, but it's time to unplug his microphone and let other candidates have a chance to share their opinion.
I love the country I live in, but I'm terrified to be living in it. I'm horrified of the idea of a 'leader' like Trump who relies on an unrealistic image of the past instead of innovating solutions to bring America into a progressive and brilliant future. I don't want to make America great again, I want to make it better than it ever was before, breaking records, innovating solutions, and moving the country forward with the notion that we as a country are capable of change. I'm scared of how many people I know that blindly follow Trump's claims of political exclusion towards races of people, without any political justification other than his own racist ideals. Any leader attempting mass mobilization of people based on hateful ideals is one to be extraordinarily fearful of, and it's time for us to stop encouraging it through our constant and overwhelming coverage through the media.