I see on your Facebook pages and your trucker hats that you want to make America great again. That's a pretty bold statement (that America ISN'T great) and an even bolder undertaking. Changing an entire country? I have to applaud your ambition, even if I find your reasoning to be more than a little ludicrous and sensationalize. I have to ask, though, what exactly do you want to change America back to? What magical and perfect time in history are you talking about? When was America truly "great?"
Was America great whenever our presidents owned slaves? Was it great whenever we treated humans as property based on their skin color, when we legally defined them as being 3/5 of a human? I imagine that the slaves of that time didn't think that it was that great, and I certainly imagine that their predecessors living now don't want to go back to that time.
Was America great whenever women weren't allowed to vote? Was it great when abuse and spousal rape was not only legal but commonplace? I'm certain that I've never heard rampant sexism and misogyny as great. Honestly, it's difficult enough being a woman in today's society. I can't imagine life in the past as anything but miserable, and I detest the idea of our country returning to those standards.
Was America great before the big, bad, liberal unions broke up big business and fought for the working classes rights? I suppose it was great for people like Donald Trump, who would be more than happy to pay coal miners and construction workers pennies for hard and dangerous work. America wasn't so great for the men, women, and children who were working 15-hour shifts and living in tenement building with no heat and little food. I'm the daughter of a former coal miner, and I can tell you that I don't want to live in that type of "great" again.
When will you think that America is great? Will it be great when your institutionalized or deported my Muslim friends? When we segregate our schools? Will it be great whenever we remove the welfare system and return to the days of people starving in the streets? What about when we deny human rights based on race, class, or gender? Because that's the America that we left behind when we chose to grow, to change, to move forwardNext time you flippantly hashtag your posts with that grandiose phrase, think about WHO America is going to be great for, because it that America won't be great for everyone. I don't want that America again. I'm willing to bet that many of you truly don't either.
