Anyone who knows anything about the United States knows how seriously this country takes freedom of speech. Whether it’s used to protest an illegitimate war or to defend the use of racial and homophobic slurs; realizing (loud and proud) the ability to deviate from popular opinion is an American right of passage. For many, the possibility of dissent is nothing short of deliverance.
I am one such person. As a writer and student, I am indebted to and deeply concerned with freedom of speech and the right to criticize and disagree. This is why the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House absolutely terrifies me.
Since beginning his campaign last June, Trump has demonstrated a serious inability to accept, acknowledge or constructively deal with criticism of any kind.
He has threatened to bend and rewrite laws that he dislikes or deems “unfair.” At a rally in Texas, Trump told his audience he would loosen libel laws to make it easier to “win lots of money” in civil cases against news publications. “So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them,” he said. He went a step further, reassuring the audience that he would specifically target the Washington Post and its owner, Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon. “If I become president, oh do they have problems,” Trump said. “They’re going to have such problems.”
Trump has also indicated that he is comfortable using executive authority to target political opponents, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (or “Crooked Hillary,” as he refers to her), going so far to say he would nominate a Supreme Court justice who “would look very seriously at her email disaster.”
“What she’s getting away with is absolutely murder,” he said. “If she’s able to get away with that, you can get away with anything.” If by “anything,” he means explicitly using political power to undermine those who disagree with you, he may be right.
Trump has encouraged and incited violence against protesters at his now notorious rallies. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” he told an audience in Iowa. “Just knock the hell — I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees.” When a man was assaulted at another rally, Trump said he would consider paying the legal fees for the attacker, who told reporters he “might have to kill” the protester if he ever saw them again.
So it goes.
Whether you are a journalist, an accomplished politician with an impressive resume, or a run-of-the-mill rabble-rouser, you should be scared of ever disagreeing with a President Trump.
The 2016 election cycle has been exciting, absurd and profoundly unreal. Unfortunately, it has been so unreal that its consequences haven’t been seriously considered or contemplated. Trump has demonstrated ad nauseam that, in his eyes, disagreement is defamation, contention is contempt and argument is agitation. All these things will be met with punishment — legal, financial or physical — from a President Trump.
If these sentiments were coming from a marginal third-party candidate, they might be entertaining and amusing. But they aren’t. They’re coming from a man who has “schlonged” more than a dozen candidates to become the presumptive Republican nominee, and who has mobilized millions of passionate, angry (and sometimes racist) supporters. We should start taking his comments — and his threats — a little more seriously. Today they may lead to ratings and views, but come November, they could lead to the criminalization of disagreement. This isn’t exaggeration or sensationalization. It is a sober reflection on the ideas and proto-policies put forward by Trump, who paints the Presidential version of himself as an authoritarian and maniacal demagogue who cannot stand disagreement, and who will have or seize the power to act on it.
If we really want to “Make America Great Again,” we should be against the idea of electing someone who perpetually undermines the very principle that makes this country great in the first place.
Join me in saying no to Trump, before it’s illegal to do so.