Donald Trump Just Outlined His Vision For America And It's Scary
On Thursday night, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican party's nomination for president.
In doing so, he delivered what was arguably the most hateful speech offered by a presidential candidate in the modern era.
Trump once again painted undocumented immigrants as criminals, even though native-born Americans are more likely to commit violent crimes and be incarcerated.
Trump also cited the need to stop violence against police, but failed to discuss the extremely troubled relationship between minorities and this country's criminal justice system.
What's more, he called for banning immigration from countries "compromised by terrorism," a vague and disturbing suggestion with potentially far-reaching consequences.
Trump did call for the need to protect the LGBTQ community, citing the horrible tragedy in Orlando, but he did so by championing Islamophobic sentiments.
Meanwhile, the two biggest chants of the night were, "build the wall" and "lock her up," highlighting the divisive sentiments that have defined Trump's campaign.
Indeed, Trump's vision for America is fundamentally about separating people.
He wants to drive a wedge between America and the rest of the world, and his desire to build an actual wall along the US-Mexico border is emblematic of that fact.
These are frightening times.
Trump's lengthy speech was interrupted sometime near the middle, when Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK (a women-led, anti-war group) appeared with a protest sign that said,
Build bridges, not walls.
Benjamin was promptly escorted out of the event.
But her protest, however short-lived, was a much needed interlude in a speech that was innately xenophobic and bigoted.
If Donald Trump is elected president, it will further embolden the hateful forces his campaign has served as a rallying cry for, and a country that has long prided itself as a haven for those who are lost in the world will enter a dark chapter of isolation.
The US became a superpower by refusing to ignore the defenseless, but Trump's America would be one of indifference to the suffering of the globe's most vulnerable people.
Donald J. Trump takes people's fears and weaves them around a narrative that fools them into believing they're exhibiting strength.
But in reality, electing Trump would signify to people worldwide the US has become a nation of cowards, desperate to hide behind walls in a futile attempt to prove the rest of the planet is the source of our problems.
If we go down this path, the sour and lonely taste of isolation will soon prove to us we have sowed the seeds of our discord, and separating ourselves from other people will not save us from the issues we seem determined to ignore or blame on others.
Trump's vision for America is inherently un-American and, if he's elected, this country would be voluntarily abandoning its purported values.
