It's been one week since inauguration and a few weeks since I wrote on Donald Trump. It goes without saying I wish I didn't have to do that. Additionally, collecting my thoughts on this man always takes a while because as soon as I think of his face there are ten things I want to say simultaneously, and I might be a writer, but I'm not experienced as much as I would have to be to say everything I want to say about him in one concise 700 word long blog. But heck, this is a learning space, and it's also a platform read by many people I know naturally disagree with me and therefore I believe my words are not lost. My political opposition of everything this guy stands for is, after all, not coming from a political place but a moral one, so I believe even his voters probably agree with a thing or two in the following post.As a disclaimer to any Trump post I always feel like saying that I don't dislike him any more than any other leaders I disagree with. I doubt he'd be a person I'd get along with but who knows if, deep down, he actually knows he has become the face of a policy of hate. Rodrigo Duterte, for example, also thinks his government of mass murder is fighting the "evil" drug lords and is thus saving the Philippines. If you asked this vile man if he was sleeping well at night because he was a hero, not a villain, this guy would whole-heartedly say "yes" and not even lie. Same also applies to Hitler, by the way. Remember Stalin, the "good guy"? I think my point is clear here: not everyone who does evil is evil. That's why humans created a "judging God". The question remains if that makes it any better...
Those who know me know I am pretty fair when it comes to politics. I have never "won" an election but I would die for my German democracy every day because Angela Merkel's CDU is what my people chose each time I voted. I was scratching my head, wondering why poor people would go to the polls voting for the Conservative lady when literally anything to the left of the CDU would have literally meant more money in the bank for them but that's what they chose, even if that was stupid. Donald Trump is NOT that! Bush vs Kerry I got. Maybe in that scenario I could see why people would have decided for the Republican although I would never, but fine, your choice. 25% of Americans however saw Donald Trump as a suitable leader, and we've been through it a hundred times: that's not something I hate because I loved Hillary or don't get Republicanism (I get it alright, I just don't understand how it's the "Christian" party). I hate it because 25% of Americans condoned, and even celebrated, a campaign founded on selfishness and marginalizing those who need support. And 25% was enough to make him the "leader of the free world", a guy that fights the free press and said he does not oppose torture.
I find it hard to believe that after this first week some of his voters are not starting to think they might have made a yuuuge mistake, at least the "better than Hillary" people who believed he'd never go through with his insane, arsinine promises. Sure, a pretty large (too large) amount of people voted for him BECAUSE of the wall, the Muslim ban or the end of Obamacare. Here we can say we disagree. I have no idea why people would want any of these things but they do, I get it. However, I have yet to find people who can make me understand. Let's take the example of the wall: duh, building a wall to keep illegals out doesn't sound like a menace when you hear it (and have never been to school in your life to hear about some of the other walls they had throughout history) but why do you want this wall? A few points: it won't work, people will still come. Are you gonna shoot them, too? On top of that, I understand you want South Americans to keep out because they're criminals? That, my dear friends, is racist. Whether you agree with that or not. As this reasoning is debunked, the only thing left to assume is that these people actually want the wall because they're racist. Volunteers to make me understand are welcome to call me, day and night.
And then, as if it wasn't bad enough already, he pens the next order, keeping his fellow Americans out of their country due to their faith and ethnicity. Oh, and refugees. I don't care who you are, where you're from, don't care what you did, but this is the definition of UNAmerican. With that stance America wouldn't be where it is today, and I don't mean "being the most hated country in the world" or "the global police". The Constitution itself prohibits such discrimination, never mind the Geneva Convention, and now the President himself engages in such practice of discrimination and, frankly, illegality. Even though fear of Muslims is unfounded, some people just are scared, and those who are scared I would rather reassure than insult. Yet, and it needs to be said, it's unacceptable behavior that Thomas Jefferson would be ashamed about. And even if such a fear had an origin the fact (for all that still means) remains that each country experiencing IS terror in the last few years harbored their own homegrown terrorists. A ban could literally not have saved a single soul at the Bataclan. Their murderers came from "within". Volunteers to make me understand how they feel safer now, welcome day and night.
But in the light of such horrible, even scary politics taking shape in what was sold to us as the "land of the free" I see tremendous hope that this is our chance to show that the critical thinkers we were raised to be have done our homework. The overwhelming truth for me is that I get a chance to not be a hypocrite. This is my chance to show that I would have been a Sophie Scholl, a Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a General von Stauffenberg who were one hundred percent right in their assumption that what was being told to them as the "right thing" was far from it. History prove them right! God himself could speak to me and tell me to oppose Muslims, keep them out of my home, and build a wall to stop Mexicans from exploiting me, I would refuse to. What is "right" is in the heart. If we approach each other in a loving way it is impossible to understand President Trump's EOs as the right steps, and every human being will have to understand. I know, they also feel "right", just like Donald Trump, Hitler, Duterte and all the others but we are different in one thing: they prioritize themselves, we don't. A famous man from Nazareth once said something about that...
Of course, I sound very self-righteous and like I never considered that maybe my way isn't the right one either, but I am convinced rejecting hatred will lead me to my own personal promise land, the world I want to live in, and Donald Trump won't get us there. I appreciate people with different opinions, and accept that many see a more conservative world order to be the better path to form the world they want to live in. Factually assessed, though, this Donald Trump world vision might get you your "merry Christmas" back or put you in the front seat as an American when it comes foreign policy, the notion of "America first" and all the connecting EOs we already witnessed will mean that EVERYONE ELSE comes second though. In life, those who only seek to benefit themselves end up alone; in politics, it won't be different. Money, power and influence mean nothing. I don't want to be that person. And you know who told me that? Jesus Christ. Without knowing the guy I can directly quote him for condemning the behavior of shutting our door to the needy, and that is exactly what is happening. It's not about politics anymore. It's not about our survival, even if you think so, either. It's about morals, knowing what is right in your heart, and shutting your door to keep yourself safe will only make you one thing: alone!
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