I often hear and read things that annoy me — but usually I just get annoyed, and then move on. But a few days ago, I read something that is more than annoying to me — it’s truly disturbing.
Veterans day was November 11 and because it was on a Saturday, the weekend was filled with various “Veterans Day events.”
One of the traditional Veterans Day activities usually includes the President participating in a wreath laying ceremony and saying a few words at Arlington National Cemetery. President Biden spoke to veteran’s families and said, “Most Americans never see the sacrifices that you as family members also make. The will never see this holidays, birthdays, made special even with the empty seat at the dinner table… They’ll never see all of those nights spent waiting for word from a loved one deployed overseas because you are not sure. Too often, the sacrifices go without thanks or without acknowledgement. We must remember only 1% of our society today protects 99% of us.” Typical words we have grown to expect around Veterans Day.
But at almost exactly the same time, Presidential candidate Donald Trump released these words on his social media platform: “In honor of our great Veterans on Veterans’s Day [sic,] we pledge to you that we will root out the Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our Country, lie, steal and cheat on Elections, and will do anything possible, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America, and the American Dream. The threat from outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave, than the threat from within.”
These are the exact words used by the two men who will presumably be running for President of the United States. Honesty, I’m not thrilled that either one of them is running — but — the words used by one of he candidates should be very, very disturbing to everyone.
The fact that these words don’t seem to bother lots of the people is, again, disturbing. This may sound like typical “Trump talk,” but the fact is he’s basically saying that the biggest threat to America is the people that he doesn’t like. He’s always used derogatory terms to describe his “enemies,” but lately he’s been using evil and has now apparently downgraded his description to vermin.
There’s been a lot written in history books about various “leaders” over the years using language to dehumanize people and encourage their followers to engage in violence. If you think that isn’t happening right here in the United States of America today, maybe you’d better think again. I’ve lived in a lot of places in this world and the countries whose leaders are most admired by Donald Trump are the very countries where I would never want to live. This rhetoric appears to be the new normal for at least one political party, and it scares me — it should scare you, too.
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