A Promise I Wish Trump Would Remember He Made
Bo Brusco | May 23, 2020
"Donald Trump in Ottumwa, Iowa" by evan.guest is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Donald Trump ran his presidential campaign on many promises. Perhaps, none more iconic than his pledge to construct a wall along the country’s southern border. However, the promise that resonated with me the most was his promise to unify this divided nation.
Promises Promises
As early as March of 2016, Trump was forecasting the ability his presidency would have to bring everyone together. In his speech at Warren, Michigan, Trump said, “Believe it or not. I'm a unifier. I will unify the country.” Flash forward to November 9th of that same year, and Trump wins the election. In his victory speech, Trump reiterates his promise: “Now it's time for America to bind the wounds of division. We have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and Independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
I remember watching him say that on live television, and I will never forget the tone with which he delivered those lines. He sounded heartfelt and sincere—tones commonly absent at most of his boisterous campaign rallies. It seemed like I was observing a presidential candidate who had been humbled by his victory and was feeling a sense of dignity because of the weight of his office. His first tweet as president-elect appeared to be optimistic as well: We will all come together as never before.
Trump is responsible for increasing divisions
Almost four years later, it is hard for me to take those words as anything more than empty promises. He said he would unite us, but today I am claiming the opposite: that Trump is responsible for increasing the sore division among his citizens. I could use his obviously divisive name calling on Twitter as evidence to support this claim, but that evidence doesn’t seem very compelling anymore as we have become acclimated to the various Trumpisms such as: Do Nothing Democrats, Radical Left, Crooked Hillary, and Sleepy Joe. Honestly, sometimes his nicknames are funny; however, the humor does not outweigh the perpetuation of our extreme division.
Instead, I would like to present the language used in Trump’s Facebook polls as evidence for my claim. It is no secret that Trump likes to proudly tote his approval ratings around. Just two days ago he tweeted: “96% Approval Rating in the Republican Party. Thank you!” To me, once you actually see the rating options for those polls, you wouldn’t be impressed nor surprised by his high approval percentage; though you might begin to notice the rhetorical patterns Trump uses to appeal to the biases of his tribal followers. The four options in his poll are: Great, Good, Okay, and Other. So the worst he can do is Other. Now, this kind of linguistic trickery doesn’t seem very divisive. It is deceptive, sure; but the Biden vs Trump polls are where the most obviously divisive rhetoric abounds.
This is an image of an ad on Facebook for a voting poll between Trump and Biden. The description of the poll can be read in the attached photo, but the logic suggests that if you do not vote for President Trump then you are A) not a “REAL” American and B) a Socialist. This rhetoric is blatantly divisive because it is not only a false dichotomy, but also promotes an “Us vs Them” mentality.
Now this evidence could be dismantled by suggesting that Donald Trump did not write those words himself. But my counter to that is the fact that, just last June, he said, “A vote for any Democrat in 2020 is a vote for the rise of radical socialism and the destruction of the American dream.” Perhaps there is no way to trace the words of his Facebook ad directly to Trump himself; but it is evident that he personally endorses this sort of rhetoric, as it has come from his own mouth. How is this fulfilling Trump’s promise of unity? To suggest that any, and by extension all, Democrats are radical socialists who want to destroy the American dream does not bind the wounds of division—it rips them deeper.
Additionally, nine days ago I got an email from Trump’s official website claiming that “Democrats are energizing their socialist base,” because they want to take the White House and implement “their extremist agenda.” This rhetoric is divisive by its own merit, but it is also divisive because it is riddled with fear. According to the Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Wayne State University, Arash Javanbakht, “Fear is a very strong tool that can blur humans’ logic and change their behavior.” The logic that the Democratic party is composed of individual human beings who do not conspire in some “extremist agenda” to “destroy the American dream,” is being blurred by Trump’s fear infused rhetoric; escalating the inhumane discord between right and left.
The dehumanization of the ‘other’
How do leaders of nations convince their people to go to war and kill and torture other human beings? By convincing them that they are dangerous animals to be feared and hated. It is the dehumanization of the ‘other.’ Speaking anecdotally, this is how I have been perceiving Trump’s behavior and speech towards the American people. His statements about what it means to be a real American, and the attempts to make anyone who opposes him appear to be inferior, inhumane, immoral, lawless, and essentially making them the ‘other’ (outgroup homogeneity bias), are his attempts to condition one side to completely disregard the humanity of the other and only see them as lesser beings—unworthy of compassion or reason.
Out of all the promises Trump has made, this is the one I wish he would have kept. I want to live in a country where people can disagree and still be humane and respectful to one another. I want to live in a country where a single political standing of mine doesn’t encompass my entire identity. I want to live in a country where your voice has value regardless of your tribal loyalties. Therefore, I need a president who can be a role model for human decency. I need a president who doesn’t demonize his opposition. I need a president who can unify the American people and truly bind the wounds of division.
I am not claiming that Donald Trump is incapable of being such a president, but I know that, so far, his efforts have only made this alarming issue worse.
