Politics
Okay, here’s the most important part. Trump brought racism and every other -ism into the White House on Day 1. Jeff Sessions is clearly a racist, Steve Bannon is a documented card-carrying white supremacist, and many other members of the administration are either against homosexuality, a multiracial society, or at the very least have this weird hatred of poor people and millennials. So much of Trump’s policies align with these views, and I don’t see that getting any better. The Immigration Ban is an example of that, but there are many others.
There are many, but here’s a sample:
Trump has started allowing churches to endorse political candidates. He’s very interested in ensuring a Christian super-majority. He’ll probably also allow churches to use collections every Sunday to fund campaigns and even ask churchgoers to donate additional funds without ever explaining how much goes to the church and how much goes to a campaign. So, of course, now you can’t even go to church where you want to because you’ll have to pay for campaign you might not support. You’ll also obviously be encouraged to vote for someone because a person who you trust to have God’s ear is asking you to, and who are you to say no to your priest?
By the way, this is probably the only example of no taxation WITH representation.
Trump is also seeking voting records from all 50 states in the name of voter fraud, and we all know one side of the debate on voter registration has always really been about race. Steve Bannon has said he wants only businessowners or those who own land to be able to to vote. It’s voter suppression, plain and simple. The attempt to actually collect voting records from an election and not just voter registration records is abhorrent and obviously meant to scare people into voting for Trump next time because he’ll find out if you didn’t. So this is far worse than simply trying to prevent people from voting.
Another obvious problem is nationalism. The immigration ban, calling Mexicans rapists, telling Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull “I know they’re bad” in reference to refugees the previous administration agreed to take in, and many other things that Trump has said are encouraging latent nationalism to organize a resurgence that I don’t think many people even knew was still around. We’re deporting everyone, and now there’s even the RAISE Act that’s attempting to keep even more people from coming in!
Oh yeah, and he thinks transpeople shouldn’t be allowed to defend their country. Yes, well, Trump is stupid. That’s not going to save any money, and he’s not going to convince anyone that it will.
Did you also know that Trump supports the Bathroom Bill? That has encouraged TWELVE more states to create their own. North Carolina’s original creation of the bathroom bill to force transgender students to use the bathroom of their birth sex has now spread. North Carolina’s harsh policies against the LGBT community has cost them any and all NCAA-hosted events in that state and has already cost them $3.76B as of March 2017. Now 12 states are joining in because they know Trump will be fine with it if not praise it.
Finally, I have a theory that Trump’s Infrastructure Plan is going to turn into a process of gentrification. Given the housing policy crisis that has led to so many minorities and white people alike having a hard time finding affordable housing and Trump’s HUD appointee gaining no housing experience during his career as a neurosurgeon, I don’t see an emphasis on trying to provide affordable housing, and given his long career of creating exclusive hotels and resorts, it seems pretty obvious to me that he’ll create opulent skylines that are as white as the clouds above them. It’s a good thing that most affordable housing programs are run by the states. Here in DC, affordable housing is run very well, but in other states, if you’re poor, you’re pushed into rough neighborhoods and then of course blamed for those neighborhoods’ problems. Given that Trump sounds like the poster child for this kind of treatment of poor people, I’m guessing his infrastructure plan is really a form of gentrification that will push out all the poor people and as many minorities as he can.
Okay, so what’s the plan? What can WE do to stop this?