Though Trump towers, don't let him win
Out there, across the ‘pond’, there is a man. No “ordinary man” – but a tyrannical, venomous and prejudiced man. A rich man undoubtedly. A man who believes others like him should be able to carrying their guns freely in public. A man who believes that Global Warming is an “expensive hoax”; a man who believes that nuclear energy is the way to go; a man who told reporters how if he and his daughter weren’t related, he’d be dating her. A man who referred to women as “fat pigs”; a man who intends to build a “big, beautiful wall” to keep ‘rapist’ Mexicans from immigrating. A man coining the slogan “Make America Great Again!” for his election propaganda. A man vying for control of the most powerful nation in the world but talking as if he could run it as if it were the only country in the world, with all the rest inferior and not to be trusted.
Who else would I be talking about other than Donald Trump? Why would I be talking about him? Because as you may have noticed, he’s doing well, exceeding most previous expectations and predictions of his performance in the elections. When he announced in 2015 that he was running for president, everybody was laughing – and too many of them still are. People, this is serious now. As unbelievable as it may seem, Trump has a chance. It may well be that come November, he might just become the most powerful man in the world. It isn’t a joke anymore, this is serious.
Trump’s arrogance, bigotry and desire for power reminds me forcibly of that power-hungry, arrogant, grunting Dictator in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: the infamous Napoleon the pig– with a notorious reputation for “getting his own way”. Trump’s supporters have even developed a tendency of saying: “If Trump says it, it must be true”, frighteningly similar in its way to Napoleon’s lap-pig Squealer, as he famously declared “If Napoleon said it, it must be right” followed by ultimately “Napoleon is always right” .
Infamous YouTube prankster “Soflo Antonio” has recently run a small a social experiment, reading a fake Trump pamphlet to Trump supporters – that were actually filled with lines spoken by Adolf Hitler. Disturbingly, these supporters trot out the party line, mimicking Squealer as they do so: “If Trump said it, then I support it” – no thought, no question of the words themselves. They’ve bought into Trump and his persona hook, line and sinker and they don’t care how low it stoops.
In the UK, an online petition to ban him from entering the UK, on the grounds of his incitement of racial and religious hatred, gathered over 500,000 signatures. Parliament left this unanswered, choosing the line that Trump was simply an idiot and should be treated as such, with ridicule and derision rather than a ban. One can’t help but wonder if an anti-white, anti-Christian racist speaker (preacher?) would be treated with the same official shrug. Isn’t it time to take him as seriously as any other fanatical bigot?
As we all know, it’s “not been easy” for him, as he infamously recalled how “[his] father gave [him] a small loan of a million dollars” to start his career off in Brooklyn. Trump had the riches from the very beginning, even admitting that he had no competition by being the son of Fred Trump – “I got Manhattan all to myself”. So really is he even as successful and high achieving as he’d like to have us all believe?
Added to all this, he has had anti-racism protesters forcibly ejected from his speeches. Should America entrust their country to a man who encourages violence against those who disagree? A man whose anti-Muslim speeches could conceivably do more to create embittered young Muslims vulnerable to radicalisation than any Isis recruiters?
Obviously, we have no democratic say in who America chooses to elect, but it still matters. Not just for America, but for the world. Donald Trump’s election would be a catastrophe for international relations and a potentially fatal flaw in the global soap opera of international politics. Wherever we can, we need to stand up and say that equality matters; that mutual respect matters; that standing together with others, regardless of colour, race or creed, is the only way to make a better world.
Lauren Smith, Year 12
Who else would I be talking about other than Donald Trump? Why would I be talking about him? Because as you may have noticed, he’s doing well, exceeding most previous expectations and predictions of his performance in the elections. When he announced in 2015 that he was running for president, everybody was laughing – and too many of them still are. People, this is serious now. As unbelievable as it may seem, Trump has a chance. It may well be that come November, he might just become the most powerful man in the world. It isn’t a joke anymore, this is serious.
Trump’s arrogance, bigotry and desire for power reminds me forcibly of that power-hungry, arrogant, grunting Dictator in George Orwell’s Animal Farm: the infamous Napoleon the pig– with a notorious reputation for “getting his own way”. Trump’s supporters have even developed a tendency of saying: “If Trump says it, it must be true”, frighteningly similar in its way to Napoleon’s lap-pig Squealer, as he famously declared “If Napoleon said it, it must be right” followed by ultimately “Napoleon is always right” .
Infamous YouTube prankster “Soflo Antonio” has recently run a small a social experiment, reading a fake Trump pamphlet to Trump supporters – that were actually filled with lines spoken by Adolf Hitler. Disturbingly, these supporters trot out the party line, mimicking Squealer as they do so: “If Trump said it, then I support it” – no thought, no question of the words themselves. They’ve bought into Trump and his persona hook, line and sinker and they don’t care how low it stoops.
In the UK, an online petition to ban him from entering the UK, on the grounds of his incitement of racial and religious hatred, gathered over 500,000 signatures. Parliament left this unanswered, choosing the line that Trump was simply an idiot and should be treated as such, with ridicule and derision rather than a ban. One can’t help but wonder if an anti-white, anti-Christian racist speaker (preacher?) would be treated with the same official shrug. Isn’t it time to take him as seriously as any other fanatical bigot?
As we all know, it’s “not been easy” for him, as he infamously recalled how “[his] father gave [him] a small loan of a million dollars” to start his career off in Brooklyn. Trump had the riches from the very beginning, even admitting that he had no competition by being the son of Fred Trump – “I got Manhattan all to myself”. So really is he even as successful and high achieving as he’d like to have us all believe?
Added to all this, he has had anti-racism protesters forcibly ejected from his speeches. Should America entrust their country to a man who encourages violence against those who disagree? A man whose anti-Muslim speeches could conceivably do more to create embittered young Muslims vulnerable to radicalisation than any Isis recruiters?
Obviously, we have no democratic say in who America chooses to elect, but it still matters. Not just for America, but for the world. Donald Trump’s election would be a catastrophe for international relations and a potentially fatal flaw in the global soap opera of international politics. Wherever we can, we need to stand up and say that equality matters; that mutual respect matters; that standing together with others, regardless of colour, race or creed, is the only way to make a better world.
Lauren Smith, Year 12