November of 2015.
Nearly nine years ago.
Trump mocked the disability of a reporter.
Let me reiterate. He mocked a disabled person’s disability.
It should’ve ended there.
I was only eight years old when he did this. I didn’t know anything about politics. I thought the president was inherently an awesome person, no matter who they were. I thought Obama was really cool. I admired the presidency.
And here was this candidate for president mocking a disabled person.
I didn’t know anything about politics, but people had been teaching me morals since I was a baby. And I knew this was immoral. And everyone else should’ve known that too.
It should’ve ended there.
But it didn’t.
We had a chance to stop this whole mess nearly a decade ago, but instead we’ve been stuck in a loop of division and hatred that has not only swallowed the country but the planet. We were warned of the dangers of Donald Trump and his incompetence to be a leader all the way back in 2015. We were warned of how destructive the MAGA movement would become.
Yet we failed to recognize it. People failed to take the warning. People didn’t care.
And we suffered for it.
And people now continue to get swallowed up in pride, anger, bitterness, peer pressure, and misinformation. They continue to fuel the bigotry machine.
I’ve been told a lot of things as an unemployed teenager writing openly about politics. I’ve been told I’m too young to understand, or too naive. I’ve been told that once I started to pay taxes or buy groceries that my mind would change. I’ve been told that this is what God wants, making me question everything I thought I could trust in religion and in the concept of a merciful god. I mean, why would Jesus want such a hateful and bitter man to lead us? What kind of twisted god would want that?
I am naive. I have a lot to learn. I have a lot of life to live. I have a lot of opinions that will likely be changed. But maybe some of the adults who think me naive are naive themselves.
I’ve also been told I’m wise beyond my years. I’ve been praised for the way I look at things. I’ve been compared to adults, even considered smarter than some. I’m not sure if that’s true. I’m just me, with my life experiences. Others have their own life experiences.
But I’ve also been told that I’ve done my research. And that got me thinking. Some of my critiques don’t seem to have done their research. And, I mean, can I really blame them? This stuff gets confusing and depressing. It’s a really twisted, deep rabbit hole.
So, with that in mind, I decided to plunge down the rabbit hole so they didn’t have to.
This post will likely be longer than email length. I apologize for that in advance. Honestly, it would’ve been longer if it weren’t for how taxing this ended up being on my mental health. This topic gets dark and draining quickly.
And unfortunately, I’ve only scratched the surface. There is so much more here I didn’t even mention. I mainly focused on Trump himself, but he isn’t alone. No one works entirely alone. The whole MAGA movement is extremely distressing, and there are so many other politicians who are just as bad or even worse than Trump.
But Trump spearheaded the plunge into this age of polarization, so this post will center around him.
And this is also not encouragement to not do your own research. Please, research these things on your own. But I know many people don’t, so here it is collected.
I know a lot of people have already voted. Maybe it’s way too late to change people’s minds. And hey, maybe I’m just screaming into the void anyway. Maybe I’m just an echo chamber. I can’t come up with anything new to say anymore. And I am so sick and tired of being all doom and gloom. I am sick and tired of politics. Honestly, I’ve become sick and tired of Substack as well. And I am so, so, SO sick and tired of the MAGA movement.
So maybe this won’t do anything. But at least I can say I tried. At least my conscience can rest easy.
So without further ado, here is my final argument before the election.
I Did My Research
Before I begin, I want to cite some news source bias charts so you can cross reference a lot of what I’m citing here. While a lot of the sources I used skew a little to the left, I tried to remain as middle ground and reliable as I could while looking for this information. You can check me on these things.
Now to back up my original claim. It’s old news, but Trump mocked a disabled reporter. I don’t think I need to explain myself when I say that was disgraceful.
This was an omen of what was to come with the MAGA movement and its leader. An omen I wish we all took a little more seriously.
But, of course, we didn’t take it seriously enough, and we’re stuck with him somehow. I say somehow because the man lies a lot. Yet many people believe him. They think it’s the Democrats who are lying…and the entire media except for the sources Trump okays…and many of their friends and family…basically, everyone is lying except for Trump.
I’ve been told I need to use my critical thinking skills. I have. And they’ve shown that Trump is an entirely untrustworthy person.
With his lying tendencies in mind, it is hard for me to understand why anyone believes him when he promises to “fix everything” for the thousandth time without doing anything, especially when it comes to the economy. But then again, I understand.
Inflation is hurting Americans. Prices are crazy right now. I understand wanting things to change. But if you look into it, you realize the president has very little control over prices.
The president does have some power, but their power is limited even in the government. The government even has limited power over the economy. Since we live in a capitalist society, businesses have a lot of control over prices. It’s part of the nature of capitalism. Everyone, between the government, businesses, and even the consumers have an effect on inflation rates. It is not controlled by one person.
This is an extremely complicated topic, so there’s no use going to deep here. What I think Trump supporters should know is that Trump’s economic plans won’t be better than Biden’s. Many leading economists (experts on the economy and how it works) agree that Trump’s plans would be detrimental.
Don’t believe me? You don’t have to. Here’s sources.
His tariff ideas wouldn’t help American businesses. They’d decimate our economy. Do I need to remind my fellow Iowans about the Chinese trade war he got us into back during his last presidency?
Someone on Substack you should consider looking into more to understand the economics of politics is Robert Reich. He is a professor and worked for a few presidents on economics, though I will admit Democratic presidents. But he is an extremely respected professional with documentaries made about him.
So Trump is bad about lying and insulting people, and he’s not even good for the economy. He’s actually the worst thing for it. But at least he’s patriotic, right? No. No, he’s not. And this one is extremely personal for me as the son of a proud veteran.
He has disrespected our veterans so many times it’s disgusting.
Even the freaking VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) said something about his disrespect.
Trump is not patriotic. I’d argue he’s the farthest thing from it. Rather, he’s exploiting what his followers think is “patriotism” that’s actually nationalism. And nationalism can become very bad very quickly. Especially when it’s used to create an “Us vs Them” mentality.
Trump has milked this method in another one of his most effective campaigning topics. Immigration. Using a mix of actual information and misinformation, he’s popularized the idea that there is an invasion of our country from immigrants, which is ironic for a country made from immigrants.
Many of his claims are exaggerated or sometimes downright false. His claims against Muslims and Hispanic immigrants/migrants/refugees are often extremely racist. Many of these people are not violent and are just seeking refuge from dangerous areas, but Trump has twisted that with lies.
He’s said immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” which is horrifically and shamefully racist. He’s called immigrants “animals” and claimed they were “not human.” He said this about actual people. PEOPLE. That is dehumanization in it’s most basic form and should not be tolerated, especially by a presidential nominee.
Trump is fear mongering when he uses these immigration arguments. His lies are inherently racist and extremely problematic for our nation for a reason I shall soon jump into.
But I want to make this entirely clear. What he says are lies. There is not an immigration caused crime wave. Immigrants are not stealing our jobs or our homes. As a matter of fact, many of them take the jobs nobody wants and many even build houses. They have proven to be an important part of our economy.
And for crying out loud, THEY ARE NOT EATING PETS. That destructive lie has caused so much chaos, including 30 bomb threats against public spaces and even schools. SCHOOLS. The fact that Trump can even say something like that and people will respond with violence shows how dangerous he has become. And it makes you wonder what would happen if you disagreed with him.
Yes, some immigrants cause crime, but that’s because they’re human like the rest of us. Other humans are just as likely to commit crimes. Actually, if this research proves anything, it’s that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes.
These prejudices against immigrants are cases of disgusting generalization. Believing that a group of people are inherently one way or another. You might think this is harmless when it’s directed against someone else, but what if it was directed towards you?
Is it fair to think all men are sexist, misogynistic rapists? Is it fair to think all women are drama-loving kitchen-workers who can only contribute by being mothers? Is it fair to think all Christians are terrible, homophobic oppressors who will force their beliefs on you with threats? Is it fair to think all white people are racist? Is it fair to think that all Republicans are stupid, uneducated bigots who care about nobody but themselves?
So how is it fair to think Hispanic migrants are a bunch of drug-dealing rapists? Or that all Muslims are terrorists? Human beings are too complex to be generalized, especially when that stereotype only represents a small yet loud minority in those groups.
I believe that if you are willing to make generalizations about others, you better not be upset when people make generalizations about you.
I also do want to mention that Republicans have also made the supposed immigration “problem” worse just so they’d have something to run on. Yeah, they’re actively sabotaging the one thing they said they’d fix.
Immigrants aren’t the only ones he inspires hate against. Trump’s personal history with the LGBTQ+ community is difficult to explain, but it is clear that the overall MAGA movement has embraced homophobia and transphobia to a frightening degree. And lately, Trump’s own campaign has been exploiting that.
But there is one group he has targeted the most. His own political opposition, the Democrat Party. He has turned his supporters against Democrats to a frightening, even violent degree. This has encouraged Democrats to turn away from Republicans. Thus, Trump has led America’s recent polarization just by the simple method of dividing and conquering.
And he’s not done. He’s upping the anti-Democrat rhetoric, going as far as to call his fellow Americans “the enemy from within.”
Don’t believe this? Hear his own words on Fox News itself.
His lies and pride got so bad that when he lost the 2020 election, he couldn’t accept it. So he sabotaged the very backbone of democracy. He created massive distrust in the election process.
Here’s a video from Robert Reich explaining how Trump was able to spread this lie in the first place, and how he might do it again this election cycle. It put a lot into perspective for me personally.
And eventually, he convinced his own supporters to rally in Washington to protest the “unfair” results of the election. These “protests” eventually became a riot that stormed the Capitol, endangering the lives of countless government officials, including his own vice president. This event on January 6th, 2021 threatened to overthrow our democracy.
And his response was downright petty.
And his response to his own supporters being violent is really ironic when one considers what he thought of the Black Lives Matter protests. It’s almost as if he’s okay with violence when it supports him…
Trump is clearly unfit for leadership of any kind, but this whole thing leads me up to a claim I never wanted to make.
I’ve been hesitant to say this, but after researching this extensively and talking it over with others, there is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump is a fascist.
I have been careful to use that term because it’s dangerous to throw around lightly, but Trump demonstrates the qualities expected in fascist dictators.
First, here’s a few definitions of fascism. And Trump qualifies in all of them.
And even his own past staff have claimed he’s a fascist, going as far as to admit he’s praised Adolf Hitler himself.
And the praise for dictators doesn’t stop there. Trump has hailed authoritarians and fascists time and time again.
Not to mention his “I’ll be a dictator on day one” comment that made the Founding Fathers roll in their graves. Being a dictator for even one day goes entirely against the whole reason this nation was founded.
Then there’s the whole Project 2025 mess, which is straight up fascism. If you don’t know what Project 2025 is, then have you been living under a rock? But for your sake, it’s basically a conservative takeover plan that would completely crush American democracy. It is so complex and so bad that I encourage you to look at it yourself.
And I know. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025. But he’s a proven liar, so why should we take his word at face value? Project 2025 would get him what he wants: Power. And people who know Trump worked on Project 2025. It is too threatening to not be taken seriously.
But fine. Here’s the plan Trump has openly said he’s going with, Agenda47. It’s not as extreme as Project 2025, but there’s still stuff in there about defunding schools who don’t teach conservative values and putting homeless people in camps essentially.
And maybe you don’t think it’s reasonable to believe Trump could even become a fascist dictator if he wanted to. I mean, we live in America. It could never happen here, right?
Well, after the Supreme Court’s ruling that the president has immunity from the law for “official acts,” basically putting the president above the law, I don’t think we should take chances. The stage is set for something disastrous.
Perhaps the fascist claims are becoming too much, but don’t you worry, there’s plenty of other things to show how incompetent of a leader Trump would be.
Like, remember how everyone was on Biden’s case for being old and his mental health deteriorating? Well, Trump hasn’t been looking so hot recently…
And let us not forget the disaster that was COVID-19, and how Trump mismanaged it entirely. I would cut him some slack since it was such a unique situation and no one knew for sure what to do, but he intentionally made it worse. He encouraged conspiracy theories. He created distrust against scientists. He downplayed the severity time and time again.
And these aren’t the only claims he made against science. He’s made false claims against science many times. He’s denied climate change. He’s spread misinformation about hurricanes. He’s even said something about “exploding trees” causing wildfires.
Many claim he’s a “good Christian man,” and I beg to differ. For one thing, he sold Bibles at absurd prices to cover legal fees when his court battles were getting too tough. I’m not kidding, he actually did that.
This calls to mind a story about Jesus literally flipping a vendor’s table at a temple basically because the temple was a sacred place and this vendor was trying to profit off of it.
And then there’s all the things Jesus said about rich people being poor in spirit and not inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven while the poor people who are rich in spirit would. In fact, Jesus didn’t hate anybody, but if he did, his statements would suggest it would’ve been the rich. Which kind of sucks for Trump the billionaire…
And didn’t Jesus preach loving our neighbors? Building a wall between us and our neighbors and refusing them a place to find refuge doesn’t sound like love. Okay, maybe that comparison is unfair, but what about Trump’s talk about the “enemy from within?”
And isn’t one of the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me?” Trump would like to have a word with you, God.
Another commandment is, “You shall not commit adultery.” And oh boy, has Trump broken that one with the many affairs he’s had between the many wives he’s had.
Actually, Trump has a very bad history of disrespecting women. For one thing, he’s an adjudicated rapist. Yes, he raped someone.
And he has a boatload of sexual misconduct stories.
And if I haven’t proven he’s a terrible fit for the job yet, take into consideration that he’s a convicted felon. He’s been convicted of 34 felonies.
And he’s the only president to have been impeached twice.
And you don’t have to just take my word for it. Or the “radical left’s.” Look at what Republicans have to say about him. There’s The Lincoln Project, who you should check out. They make the best attack ads I’ve ever seen. There’s Liz Cheney, who’s been working against him and his radicalization for years now. Here’s a list from CBS of Republicans who’ve endorsed Harris. I have friends and family who’ve been lifelong Republicans, ones who even worked for Republican campaigns, who have turned against Trump. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger, famed actor and former Republican governor of California, has endorsed Harris.
On the topic of celebrities who’ve endorsed Harris, here’s a list of some pretty high profile ones.
Here’s even a video from The Lincoln Project featuring the legendary Sam Elliott.
I know better than anyone that what is popular isn’t always what’s right, but who do you trust? All of these sources and people combined, or the word of an orange billionaire?
Trump’s campaign should’ve ended back in 2015 when we got a taste of what he and his movement would become. But it didn’t.
I trusted the adults to see through him, to take into consideration the morals they had been teaching me all my life. But enough adults failed. Enough adults fell for his lies. And we’ve been paying for it ever since.
Maybe this all has changed or mind. Or not. Ultimately, it’s your vote, and I have no right to infringe on that.
And who knows? Maybe I’m wrong.
But after all this research, and all of my thinking, and all of my stressing, and all of my experiences, I doubt it.
What I hope is this. That campaign should’ve ended nine years ago. But it didn’t. But I swear, enough people will have seen through his lies, enough people will have seen through his chaos when it comes time to vote.
It didn’t end then,
thank you. Almost too much for one substack. You are right-Trump's comments on a reporter with a disability should have disabled Trump's eligibility and candidacy.
Thank you for taking the time and energy to do such comprehensive research and presenting it in such a compelling way.