–Henry Huang
I don’t want to bring politics too much into this blog since there are better things in my life than politics–like art, classical music, soccer, and Ferraris. Still, I have to talk about current affairs. More specifically, I want to talk about Donald Trump.
I am not talking about the capability of Trump being the head of the Executive Branch. My point is, Mr. Trump may be our Julius Caesar. What happened after the death of Caesar? The death of Roman Democracy! Trump may kill the most important asset of this nation: Democracy.
Now, some people may compare Trump to Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister. They are both rich; both use the anger of the people to gain power. However, they are also different. Berlusconi is a playboy who held sexual parties in his house; I don’t think Trump will do that. Meanwhile, Berlusconi did not make any outrageous statement towards any group or religion. Trump, oh well, do I need to tell you what he said?
Now, the real issue, Why may Trump kill our democracy? First of all, he has a potential desire to ignore the Constitution. An obvious example of this is when Trump, last August, made the statement that he will deport all the Mexican illegal immigrants and their natural-born children. He indeed intended to violate the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The amendment grants citizenship to the natural born. When Trump claims to send them back, it is an obvious potential violation of the Constitution. Now, people may say that there are Supreme Court justices and members of Congress that can stop Trump. Nope, I am sorry, nope. As Martin Wolf of Financial Times writes, “It is rash to assume constitutional constraints would survive the presidency of someone elected because he neither understands nor believes in [those constitutional restraints].” If Trump has an ability to violate the 14th Amendment, he will also have the ability to violate the entire constitution!
People who voted for Donald Trump support his ideas. For example, polls suggest there are voters who support deporting Muslims: “In New Hampshire, 66 percent approved of it. Seventy-eight percent of Republican primary voters in Alabama and Arkansas gave it a thumbs-up” (Foreign Policy). When Trump gets elected, what he will control is not only regular government agencies; he will have the most powerful military in human history in his hand and the most effective law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the world. Yes, I am talking about the CIA, the FBI, and the IRS. Trump will have the capability to enforce his doctrine. The point is, there are 11 million people who are illegal immigrants in the United States. Deporting all of them is a dangerous move. Martin Wolf of Financial Times continues, “Rounding up and deporting 11 million people is an immense coercive enterprise. Would a president elected to achieve this be prevented and, if so, by whom? What are we to make of Mr Trump’s enthusiasm for the barbarities of torture? Would he find people willing to carry out his desires or not?” Trump has other behaviors that should raise public concern. According to an article from Variety, “Criticizing The New York Times for its coverage, Trump said, ‘We are going [to open] up libel laws, folks, and we are going to have people sue you like you have never been sued before.’” Trump will limit the freedom of speech.
I want to end this article with another quote from Financial Times: Chief Commentator Martin Wolf concludes, “Mr. Trump may still fail to win the Republican nomination. But, should he do so the Republican elite will have to ask themselves hard questions — not only how this happened, but how they should properly respond. Beyond that, the American people will have to decide what sort of human being they want to put in the White House. The implications for them and for the world of this choice will be profound. Above all, Mr. Trump may not prove unique. An American ‘Caesarism’ has now become flesh. It seems a worryingly real danger today.” The potential danger, the seeming ignorance, the outrageous narcism of this new Caesar may be the nails in the coffin for American democracy.
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