These days it seems as though people religiously stand by their political party, supporting them as if they are football teams. This can be attributed to the lack of political education in the United States. Throughout elementary school until college, I remember being taught about the history of the U.S. and the significant people and events. We memorized titles and dates but never understood the events or what led up to them. Rarely would teachers touch on the subject of politics, or the structure within the government. And when they did, the classes provided shallow understandings and forgettable facts. Since the latest election, it seems as though people care less about the intentions or decisions of members of the political parties, and more about their party winning.
Take for example the general Christian population voting for President Donald Trump. A 2016 Pew Research poll before the primary elections showed that, “Most weekly churchgoers backed Trump over Clinton, 56 percent to 40 percent.” More specifically, 61 percent of Mormons voted for Trump as opposed to a mere 25 percent for Hilary Clinton. As for Christians, 58 percent voted for Trump and 39 percent for Clinton.
Judging by the actions of Trump, it is obvious he has little to no morals. “President-elect Trump demeaned Hispanic immigrants, insulted members of the second-largest religion in the world, encouraged supporters to both physically assault protestors and verbally assault media members, and demonstrated a history of verbal and potentially physical assaults on women throughout his life,” wrote a Nooga.com reader.
Despite all of these atrocious and disqualifying behaviors, Trump still gained millions of votes, a majority of them being from those affiliated with Christian religions. It seems ironic that this demographic that dedicates its lives to “decrying the decline of American morals” still voted for a candidate of moral deficiency. It seems obvious that this is due to the fact that Trump ran as a Republican, and the people who claim themselves to be supportive of that party simply voted for him out of ignorance of what his political agenda is, or whether he was fit to be a president.
Supporters of the Republican party presumably didn’t enjoy Barack Obama as a president due to the Democratic nature of his party. But it seems like Trump’s administration has done everything in its power to override and destroy everything that Obama created in an attempt to increase the favor of the Republican Party. An example would be the lifting of the “trophy” elephant and lion import ban. This is to keep the Republican party’s power concentrated by strengthening the support and increasing the votes for Republican politicians as a whole (legislature, governors, representatives, etc.). This way the Republicans can hold the majority.
Trump and his advisors reversing everything that Obama has created is also to keep the money concentrated within the wealthier Americans. According to Mitch McConnell, the tax cuts Trump’s making are intended to pay back the wealthy people and companies who donated to the Republican Party to ensure their continuous wins for their own monetary gain. These tax breaks are in no way benefiting the vast majority of Americans. Many Americans don’t see this, though, because it is an extremely intricate way of achieving the goal, and not many people work to be educated on current political motives. They just simply vote Republican or Democrat according to the title of the party.
If only more people cared more about politicians and their motives rather than, say, the Kardashians and whether they’re pregnant again. Hopefully one day we can achieve this “woke-ness” in our society where there can be more educated conversations about these things, and hopefully one day our education system will spend significantly more time discussing the logistics of politics and how they work. Until then, America will treat politics like they’re rooting for their favorite football team.