This Type of Conservatism is Nativist

By Will Van Gelder ’16

As this country slowly gears up for the long 2016 Presidential election, Republican voters have a plethora of candidates to choose from. There are too many governors, former governors and senators to count and the number of candidates had ballooned to seventeen before Wisconsin governor Scott Walker and former Texas governor Rick Perry dropped out. Surprisingly, business magnate Donald Trump, who is best known for his real estate company and his television show, “The Apprentice,” has gained an incredible number of supporters and has been leading in the polls for nearly three months.

Trump uses fiery rhetoric and over the top rallies to gain support, and he is relying on the idea that his business expertise will translate over to running the country. Trump is adamantly anti-immigrant, and he claimed in his now infamous campaign announcement speech that many of the Mexican immigrants that have illegally crossed the border are criminals and rapists. While this blatant show of racism disgusted a wide number of people, many of his supporters embrace this logic and his idea that the country must deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants who have made their way to this country.

The ideas Trump is spouting sound eerily similar to many racist ideals of past eras. He seems to believe that South and Central Americans as a whole are an inferior race and that if they live in the United States they need to be thrown out immediately. A law like this would, of course, not work if actually put into place, but the fact that a candidate with views this extreme and this racist is leading the polls shows a lot about this country and how a large percentage of Americans see themselves as being somehow exceptional.

Not only is this plan blatantly racist but it also isn’t feasible. A wall along the border would cost billions of dollars, and the American taxpayer would bear the brunt of that cost. The deportation of 11 million immigrants would also take years and years and cost trillions of dollars and require the hiring or reassigning of millions of border patrol and military members throughout the nation who would become a sort of Gestapo-like force.

This country was founded on the concrete bedrock of democracy and freedom for all. It has become known as a melting pot of cultures and languages for centuries; however, if Donald Trump is elected president and forcibly removes millions of people who moved to this great nation to attempt to gain better opportunities for themselves and their families, we will be looked upon with disgust and hatred throughout the world. Our European allies will no longer respect us and our country will be seen in a very negative light.