To whom it may concern,
There are those of you out there who want to "make America great again."
I have some questions for you.
Which part of American history was so great? At which point was America in a Golden Age that we are now so pressed to get back to? Was it the part when we as a nation were enslaving other human beings in order to make a profit? Was it the part where we were taking Central and South American countries in order to set up "banana republics" that were controlled by our own companies? Oh! What about the Gilded Age, when the great robber barons were setting up monopolies that drove plenty of other companies out of business, set wages low, raised rent and set up poor working conditions for people, even children?
Gee, that was a great time.
By the way, Gilded only means covered in gold. It was covering meat pies.
Hey, weren't the 1950s just amazing? When McCarthyism was running rampant, and we were so scared of communists that we held kangaroo courts to lock them up without actual due process of law? What about that time where the country took Japanese-Americans from their homes along the West Coast and threw them into internment camps because we believed that they were all spies?
Do you really think that that was a great time? These people lost their homes and businesses because the idea was that "any Jap is a bad Jap ... except for those who are already serving in our armed forces ... those guys are fine." Speaking of guys, was it a great time when men said that women couldn't vote? When a man said that a woman was not allowed to get an abortion? Because god forbid that a woman tell a man what she can do with her own body.
Gee, wasn't it great when the Equal Rights Amendment wasn't passed, an amendment that would have assured equal protection and rights under the law for any sex? Golly, it must have been amazing when women were once again forced into a position where they couldn't enjoy equal pay.
Phyllis Schlafly: Keeping women in the kitchen since the 1970s.
Hey, whatever happened to those Jim Crow laws? Weren't they making America great by oppressing people based upon the color of their skin? I wonder what new restrictions we can place upon people based on arbitrary qualifiers. It must have been some great times when the KKK was roaming around the south, marching on Washington and lynching African-Americans because the government said you couldn't own people anymore. Lincoln must have really let this country down.
That must be why there was a war.
That whole states' rights issue. What was the right that the south was fighting so hard for? Oh right, it was slavery.
He really threw this country in the toilet.
Shall I go on? Yes, it is my article, so I think I shall.
What if I shift to present day? Is the LGBT community destroying the foundations of America by infecting Americans with a gay virus? No. Are all Muslims attempting to overthrow our government and impose Sharia law on all of the red-blooded American citizens? No. Are unarmed African-American men trying to murder all cops everywhere, leading to the use of deadly force on all of them? No. Is marijuana a blight that requires us to lock up so many people, mostly minorities, leading to 22 percent of the world prison population in this country?
No.
The real hell is fighting for the top bunk.
I could really go on until my fingers fall off, but I won't. All sarcasm aside, my point is that there was no real "great" time in American history. At least there is no great time that I want to go back to. Why you would continue to support a candidate who makes these outlandish claims without actually telling us his plans to?
A candidate who is inciting the crowds to believe that Islamophobia is the right course. That we should build a wall to keep people out of this country and deport those who don't belong. This would cost upwards of $600 billion and drive our economy lower than the levels of the Great Recession. Gee, that'll be great for the country.
So if you really want this country to go back to a level of greatness from some point in our history? Go right ahead. I'll be trying to fight your bigotry, trying to make a positive difference in this country and placing my vote for a candidate who is going to make America a place where all can live a better life, no matter what ethnicity, gender, orientation, religion, age, income or other arbitrary qualifier.
Sincerely,
Nathan Clapsaddle
