The usual circus that makes up the months preceding the United States Presidential Elections has seen quite the ripple: Donald J. Trump, billionaire and businessman, has announced his bid for the Oval Office in June 2015. His campaign thus far has been called many things–needed, wanted, racist, fascist, and all-around interesting–but what it cannot be called is unprecedented. Trump has taken the same path of many political fomenters before him. Donald Trump is without a doubt a demagogue; what remains to be seen is whether or not he will fulfill his promises and whether or not these are beneficial or constitutional.
The history of fire-eating, stump-speaking, American political and social advocates is a long and rich one. One of the most famous was actually a US president–Andrew Jackson. After his loss in 1824 in what people called the “corrupt bargain” of an election, he and his followers began a vicious, mudslinging campaign against John Quincy Adams. This is not unlike some of Trump’s campaign …show more content…
Recently, Trump made some remarks many have characterized as Islamophobic, stating that all Muslims not in the country should not be allowed in–including American citizens who are currently abroad–and that anyone identifying as Muslim should be “registered” as so. While this tactic may have its merits as a way to fight terrorism (by which we mean Muslim extremism, not neo-Nazi groups or anti-immigration squads or “disturbed” white men with guns whose combined casualties are enough to make anyone quake in their boots), it disturbingly resembles the methods used for completing mass genocide. During Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, he called for similar actions–the removal of German Jews, and the identification of European Jews with the infamous yellow star. With the help of his eloquent speeches about the need for lebensraum–living space for Germans–he captured the public opinion and netted the Jews, sealing their
The history of fire-eating, stump-speaking, American political and social advocates is a long and rich one. One of the most famous was actually a US president–Andrew Jackson. After his loss in 1824 in what people called the “corrupt bargain” of an election, he and his followers began a vicious, mudslinging campaign against John Quincy Adams. This is not unlike some of Trump’s campaign …show more content…
Recently, Trump made some remarks many have characterized as Islamophobic, stating that all Muslims not in the country should not be allowed in–including American citizens who are currently abroad–and that anyone identifying as Muslim should be “registered” as so. While this tactic may have its merits as a way to fight terrorism (by which we mean Muslim extremism, not neo-Nazi groups or anti-immigration squads or “disturbed” white men with guns whose combined casualties are enough to make anyone quake in their boots), it disturbingly resembles the methods used for completing mass genocide. During Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, he called for similar actions–the removal of German Jews, and the identification of European Jews with the infamous yellow star. With the help of his eloquent speeches about the need for lebensraum–living space for Germans–he captured the public opinion and netted the Jews, sealing their