I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this point.

I know that as an American, I am angry.

I’m starting to think that maybe I am crazy. I feel as though I am watching an F grade horror movie.

In Donald Trump’s latest plans to save the United States, he is calling for a shut down of the internet.

Yes, that’s what I said. He wants to shut down the internet. Or at least control what people can access on it. I’m sorry, is this America or North Korea?

Is this really happening? I ask myself.

Yes. It is.

He stated, “We’ve got to maybe do something with the internet,”  because it was being used to radicalize people.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the internet,” Trump said. “We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening” so that he could look into “closing it up.” 

Um, right.

So once again, Trump shows just how out of touch he is with the American reality. He doesn’t even know what Bill Gates does.

Anything else, Mein Führer?

He then continued on saying that those who would bring up American’s right of free speech were “foolish people,” followed by more criticisms of the “stupid people” currently in charge.

And “everything in life is luck,” right Mr. Trump? Just like you built your own fortune and empire (with Dad’s trust fund).

Just like you will build a wall to keep out Mexicans, even though your resorts seek to import Mexicans to work in them for minimum wage (if that). So you will make America great by importing foreigners who will work more cheaply than Americans.

Right.

You will make America great again while outsourcing your clothing factories to countries where workers can be paid next to nothing and have no regulations in favor of workers. Then you can sell your suits for hundreds of dollars back here in the U.S. and get even richer.

None of this is the problem with America at all, is it?

A giant wall, registrations for non-Christians, shutting down the internet, insulting women, and mocking the disabled. This is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president.

I can’t be the only one who has an enormous problem with this.

I can’t be the only one is done shaking my head in disbelief. It was funny for awhile—but it’s not funny anymore. This is more embarrassing than Z. Cavaricchis and Fanny Packs.

This guy is serious. And what upsets me even more, is that apparently enough Americans agree with his ideology that his name is still in the hat for the nomination. Don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone has a right to believe that makes them happy, but are we really living in a society in America where so many people are in agreement with Trump’s Fascist ideals?

Does anyone remember Hitler’s rise to power? I refuse to stay silent any longer while everyone jokes about what comes out of Trump’s mouth each day. Clearly America has a real problem that we just aren’t talking about.

What comes after closing down the internet, Mr. Trump?

Who will be next in your line of blame?

Where does it stop?

I will no longer sit by while Trump makes mock of the country that I am proud to call home. Generations of Americans fought and died to first gain freedom from tyranny and then to keep it (War of Independence). Our ancestors fought wars to give freedom to those you would’ve kept as slaves (Civil War). They went to Europe by the masses to stop the spread of fascism and tyrants WWI and WWII. Americans worked hard to make this country great and to make it proud.

There is a very real threat to our way of life, to our freedoms and our core values as Americans. There is a war on the very things that America holds dear—freedom of speech, thought, diversity, creativity, religious freedom, individuality, equality, and an open door to all.

Only the threat isn’t coming from where they want us to believe it’s coming from.

It’s homegrown.

Author: Lindsay Carricarte

Editor: Renée Picard

Image: Gage Skidmore, Flickr