Say what you will about President Donald Trump, the economy is booming under his presidency. But at what cost?
The United States’ economy is doing the best it has been since the Great Recession, and the person who deserves the credit is highly debatable. Obviously, Donald Trump is the current president, and his tax cuts and spending increases have certainly done their part in stimulating the economy. However, Trump inherited an already growing economy thanks to the Obama administration. Regardless, the economy is growing, and Donald Trump is president, and it stands to reason that the economy will likely continue to grow at least in the short term.
But should the president only be concerned with the economy? Aiding the economy does serve the people, but is that the only facet America is known for, or rather should be seen as? What are the other effects of the Trump administration?
The Trump administration has taken massive steps in the wrong direction in regards to civil rights in the U.S. There are many examples to choose from, including the Muslim Ban, the restriction of refugees, the planned southern border wall and attempting to prevent transgender people from serving in the military. Trump has repeatedly shown that civil rights are far from a priority for his administration and seems to go out of his way to restrict the rights of minorities in the U.S., a practice I thought we were far past as a nation. In such a divisive society that we now find ourselves, I find it appropriate to look at a time that was divisive enough to cause a civil war.
The United States is not unfamiliar with civil rights issues, just look back at the American Civil War and the following century during the Civil Rights Movement. Hundreds of thousands of Americans fought and died to abolish slavery or, alternatively, the continuation of slavery. Slavery was, at that time, a staple for the South’s economy. Back then, people were fighting over the economy tied with emancipation. The South would rather have enslaved people to save the economy rather than release their slaves and work to find a compromise for stimulated wealth and freedom.
How does our current society compare to the Civil War era, or even to the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement? What do people care about more – the economy or civil rights, profit or equality?
The fact that we, as a nation, have a violent history during the fights for racial equality is a lasting scar on the United States that will never heal. In fact, it is a wound that keeps reopening as different minority communities are attacked by the Trump Administration.
Minorities in the U.S. continue to be oppressed, and if it is not directly because of President Trump, it is certainly a situation he is not working to improve. It is often directly because of Donald Trump that incites racial and gender discussions, and many feel validated in their discrimination because the president matches the same negative view against minority communities.
Whether it’s his ban of Muslims in America, a nation built on religious equality, or his pardoning of an openly racist sheriff in a nation that supposedly supports racial equality, Trump has made his priorities clear: The economy comes first, but supporting civil rights doesn’t seem to be on the agenda.
Are we going to agree with him? Do we really value our economy so much that we will allow our people to be oppressed? In the end, is the trade-off for a better economy worth the time we, as a nation, are spending with Trump leading us into a more openly racist and sexist society?
