Let's talk about Donald Trump winning the presidency of the United States.
He won, let us be clear, because of the system of the electoral college, which at the end
of the day in most states means that that if person wins a majority, even a small majority,
of the votes in that state, they can get every electoral vote allowed to that state, and
if you get enough electoral votes you win.
This can vary from the popular vote, which counts every single vote across the country.
Trump won the electoral college, but he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.
Very soon after his winning, Trump and those politicians close to him responded to any
criticism by saying that Trump had been elected.
So that makes me wonder: if a person campaigns being entirely open about their racism and
sexism, and they win, does that make racism and sexism right?
Trump treated black people as though they all lived in urban areas filled with crime,
and refused to show solidarity with them.
When he spoke to whites, he did use that very important word, "us."
He talked about "our country," when he spoke to whites.
But when it came to blacks, he spoke more about them and than to them.
When he spoke about blacks, he couldn't say "us," he said "them."
After being elected he met mostly with black entertainers but not with black academics
or community leaders, and yet he pretended to care about the black community.
With regard to Latinos, Trump started his campaign by calling Mexicans rapists and criminals,
and he never recovered.
He never offered a vision of the United States that included Latinos in any meaningful way.
Just like with African Americans, he never acted as if Latinos were really a part of
the community he represented.
For the most part, with his position on the border and on immigration, for him Latinos
were a problem more than human beings who form a part of the political community of
the United States.
Even after the election, he continued to antagonize the Latino and immigrant community by claiming
that he would have won the popular vote if undocumented immigrants hadn't voted illegally.
There is no proof whatsoever backing up his claim.
However, the fact that he still says this so easily shows the way that he views the
immigrant community as apart and as often criminal.
Whatever economic recovery white Anglo America thinks he promised, his rhetoric suggests
that that economic recovery will not include an immigrant community he continues to treat
as criminal even when there is no proof of that criminality.
And certainly that's also the case for Muslim Americans, who perhaps even more than Latinos
he treated as a problem rather than as equal members of the political community he claimed
to want to lead.
For women of any race or ethnicity or religion Trump showed open disregard and acted as though
words he once spoke because he wanted to seem oh so macho were acceptable.
He acted like the abuse of women was just a normal and acceptable part of life.
But now he has been elected.
He became the leader of the political community that is the United States.
He lost the popular vote, but because of the system the United States uses, he was elected.
Does that what he did was right, because he was elected?
Of course not!
Someone elected president can act wrongly.
He is human and humans sometimes act wrongly.
And if he acts wrongly, he should be criticized for it.
It is important to remember that because we live in a democracy, we have the duty to hold
our political leaders accountable for their actions.
He was elected, but that doesn't mean I won't criticize President Trump if he acts wrongly.
To suggest that we can't criticize him, simply because he was elected, is ridiculous.
He wasn't campaigning to be emperor nor was he campaigning to be a dictator.
He sought the position of president, and every president ever elected has been criticized.
Every president in the world has been criticized.
Every United States politician in the history of the country, from the local level to the
national level, has been criticized.
He should expect the same, unless he thinks he's better than every single person ever
elected to any political office in the history of the country and of the world.
Now, a separate question is whether the country believes he acted wrongly.
Well, we know the majority of the country didn't approve of him or his actions, because
the majority through the popular vote didn't elect him.
But a large number of the country apparently did approve of him, or didn't disapprove of
him strongly enough not to vote for him.
And that doesn't make any of what he did right.
Once upon a time, the majority of voters in the United States accepted the slavery of
Africans and the dispossession of Native Americans.
That didn't make it right.
That doesn't we shouldn't criticize the historic wrongs this country has committed.
So maybe many people in the country made known through their vote that they can tolerate
racism.
That doesn't make racism right.
Soon after Trump's election, a lot of people said we shouldn't call Trump supporters racists,
because that was divisive.
Without knowing someone, it's hard to say they are or aren't racist, but I can say that
certain policies that Trump supported were racist.
I can certainly say that the way he treated different groups during his campaign and after
was racist.
And if you are a Trump supporter and you're bothered that I say these things, because
you think this implies that I think you are racist, I will remind that you are the one
supporting Trump.
You are free at any time to stop supporting him and the racism he represents.
If you think he has done and said racist things, have some courage and stop supporting him.
Don't just say I'm divisive by recognizing his positions for what they are.
And if you don't think he has done and said racist things, have some courage to defend
your position.
Don't just say I'm being divisive.
If you support his actions and think those actions aren't racist, defend those actions
and explain why they aren't racist.
But regardless, I will not, in the name of some false sense of unity, a unity which can
never be true unity because it rests on ignoring the justifiable calls for equal dignity of
all the peoples Trump has insulted, I will not stop calling something that is plainly
racist what it is.
We do need unity, but we need true unity.
True unity requires respect, at a fundamental level, for everyone.
Not just for conservatives.
Not just for White Anglos.
Respect for every racial group.
Respect for men and women.
Respect for immigrants, both documented and undocumented.
Respect for the poor.
Respect for members of different religions.
We need to see each other as equal members of a political community, each deserving of
equal dignity.
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