Why We Should All Hope for Trump’s Success
Praying for Trump’s failure and slut-shaming the FLOTUS will weaken the United States, not strengthen it
By Emma McDonald
The Progressive Teen Staff Writer
IF THERE IS ONE THING I HAVE LEARNED about myself over the years, it is that I hate being wrong — and never want to be. Nonetheless, as desperate times call for desperate measures, there is one situation I can make an exception for. Since Election Day on November 8th, there has been only one thought recurring through the minds of thousands of Americans: this man will fail as our president. As much as I dislike President Trump, and it still feels a bit odd to say that, I will admit — I pray to God we are all wrong.
While bashing Donald Trump’s executive orders will always be one of my favorite pastimes, it has come to a point where I feed off of his failure. Yet I now I realize that things would be a lot worse if Trump becomes a sunken ship.
There have only been nine Vice Presidents that have succeeded the executive office; current VP Mike Pence should not be the tenth. The reality is, thanks to our 25th Amendment, if our president is removed from office, the role is assumed by Pence; a circumstance that should only remain hypothetical. Mike Pence began his political career running for Congress in 1988 and 1990, but did not win a seat until 2000. Pence was named head of the Republican Study Committee in 2005 and Republican conference chairman in 2008. In the past almost 17 years of being a politician, Mike Pence has made an impressionable impact on Americans — and not necessarily in a good way. Notorious for his views on LGBT discrimination, the pro-choice movement, and energy conservation, Pence has made numerous attempts to disregard the importance of said issues. The former Governor of Indiana voted no on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation in 2007, yes on barring the EPA from regulating greenhouse gases in 2011, and yes on banning federal health coverage that includes abortion. Now, while Trump may have some intense policies — to say the least — he does (to some surprise) have some reasonability; Trump wishes for six weeks of paid leave for new mothers and to put an end to China’s illegal export subsidies. That being said, the only thing worse than Donald Trump as our president, is Mike Pence as our president.
Apart from there being a greater evil, we should hope that our President succeeds in his position so that, very ironically, he can save America from himself. Prior to his electoral win, Trump insisted climate change was a hoax and that he would withdraw from the Paris agreement. Thankfully, the President’s views on environmental impacts have since softened, and he has claimed that he would look into whether it was man-made or not. Just as some Americans assumed, Trump’s egotistical, extreme remarks made during the good ol’ campaign days were nothing but talk — except of course, for the wall “Mexico is paying for.” In fact, once President-elect, Trump began to rationalize his previous standings on matters involving gay marriage, torture, and NAFTA. If Donald Trump can educate himself out of his own campaign promises as he did with climate change, America just may be okay.
AS MUCH AS I WISH IT WERE NOT, the Democratic Party is flawed (as is everything else in our world, but that’s for another day). Ironically, while many members of the party campaign against the degradation of women, they demonstrate the very thing they condemn toward First Lady Melania Trump. At age 18 Melania signed a modeling contract with an agency in Milan. She worked in Paris and Milan until 1996, in which she then moved to New York to further pursue her modeling career. Misogyny directed at Melania spiraled around early 2016 when the presidential race began to intensify rapidly. Many of the sexist remarks have involved pictures from her past modeling career, some of which she is depicted nude. Both parties participated in using these pictures to convey citizens not to vote for Trump, applying propaganda techniques to call Melania an unclassy trophy-wife. Keeping in mind the previous FLOTUS, Michelle Obama, was also ridiculed and shamed, it seems to be a pattern with each new POTUS.
Slut-shaming Melania Trump has no correlation with whether or not one agrees with the President’s policies. Degrading the First Lady’s body and objectifying it to use as a source of media is not only hypocritical, but dehumanizing; it creates the notion that Melania is only seen as her body, not her potential or characteristics. Tweets carrying the hashtag #rapemelania have been encircling social media without justification (no one can or should justify asking for someone to be raped, but it makes the circumstance appear more hostile since Melania has not directly made any remarks similar to her husband’s).
Having a passionate dislike for President Trump does not constitute diminishing Melania to her autonomy, and further lowers women’s voices when they try to speak up against it.
Having a passionate dislike for President Trump does not constitute diminishing Melania to her autonomy, and further lowers women’s voices when they try to speak up against it. We all must give Melania a chance to show herself through her mind and thoughts, not her body. Associating Donald Trump’s misogynistic comments with Melania does not legitimize your own misogynistic claims.
HAVING NEWS ALERTS REGARDING POLITICS FLASH onto my phone screen every five hours is no fun when it has been taking effect since the electoral vote. And, while most appear to be negative — or pointless — news headers, it has occurred to me that spreading negative news that everyone already knows about will do absolutely nothing. Alternatively, if we take down our self-righteous walls and try to hope for the President’s success rather than hoping for his inevitable downfall, things may just turn around.
The next four years are not going to be easy, but they will not be impossible. America is not going to self-destruct, its citizens will not be annihilated, and every one of us can survive this. Trump is no doubt in my mind unfit for the presidency, but I can name a few previous presidents who fit into that same category. Perfection is impossible, and there will never be a perfect president or a perfect political system.
Our Founding Fathers built this country on our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They put power into the hands of citizens. Though the U.S. has not been a nation for more than 300 years, it has gotten through many difficult times, and will no doubt get through this one. The division between today’s Democrats and Republicans is prevalent, but at the end of the day, both sides strive for the same thing — a better, stronger nation.
