“These aren’t people. These are animals,” President Donald Trump said in May 2018 referring to Mexicans immigrating into the U.S.
Why does our president get the “luxury” to refer to groups of people like this?
Just because he holds the highest position of power doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be held to the same standards as everyone else.
In 2019, people are more proactive about making the world a more inclusive place, so its’ jarring to see the person who has been elected to represent our country be given so little flak from everything he has said.
Now, the left-leaning side of the political spectrum does try to make sure Trump doesn’t get away with what he says, but anyone within his group of supporters appears almost blind to the matter.
When he made a comment about it being OK to sexually assault a woman because “when you’re a star, they let you do anything,” people brushed it off as “locker room talk.”
Somehow, it was okay for people to hear and then, act like it was a 16-year old boy, when in reality Trump was 59-years old at the time.
The amount of free passes that have been given to Trump are astronomical.
People can support who they want to support and politically, there are always pros and cons to each side of the debate.
However, the one thing that cannot be understated is the carelessness of the words the commander-in-chief has used.
He disregards the media by calling it all “fake news”, but that is just a way to make society distrust news and only believe what he says.
While society as a whole grows and becomes more accepting by nature, there are still pockets where bigotry and racism still exist, and the president’s words help no one.
During a Texas Rangers baseball game on Aug. 3, a Hispanic family was harassed by a man who complained about “all the illegal immigrants who were surrounding him” and how “Trump needs to hurry and build the wall.”
After this event was spoken about on social media, many people including the Rangers made statements apologizing and giving support to the family.
If Trump made some of his infamous comments while at a Rangers game, one wonders if he would be given the same chastising as the man received or if there would be more people supporting his comments against the family.
While one would think this would be targeted harassment from the president due to political opinions, at a rally on Aug. 16 president Trump insulted one of his own supporters.
“That guy has got a serious weight problem. Go home, start exercising,” president Trump said as a supporter of his, who he mistook for a protester was kicked out of the rally.
This comment was then followed by laughs in the audience and while the supporter took no offense by the comment, it isn’t admirable or funny to have the most powerful person in the country making comments like these left and right.
If this were any previous president, these stories would be shocking and alarming.
However, at this point, it is just sad that whenever similar events transpire it is no longer a surprise. It is merely what is expected of the president.
People deserve to be treated with respect and once the president can do that, he can earn that respect too.
Maybe it is time to try and uphold a level of decency with normal, everyday people in society as well as with the President of the United States.
