‘Donald J. Trump is going to Make America Great Again’

Expressing this opinion in a modern university campus can make you almost universally despised. As Chief of Staff of Penn State’s Students for Trump chapter, I am no stranger to that.

I respond to criticism of this chapter the same way I respond to most criticism – with a shrug. It is a free country, and people are welcome to have their own opinions even if I should disagree with them. However, the most worrying thing is that when people criticize Trump, they do not criticize his policies, ideas, or ideology. They criticize him as a person, often resorting to faulty ad hominem that 99% of the time can be proven incorrect with a simple Google search.

This means that people generally do not bother doing their own research about candidates, but instead rely on 20-second soundbites from either the mass media or Facebook and other social media that seek to demonize the man without regard to truth or accuracy. This contributes to a very hostile environment where supporters of Trump are automatically considered ‘xenophobic’, ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, or any other number of buzzwords that attempt to shut down discussion before it even begins. It is easy to see how such an environment incentivizes many of Trump’s supporters to hide their true feelings for fear of being derided or mocked.

Despite that, there is still widespread support on campus for Trump – much more than I had ever thought possible when the Students for Trump chapter was launched. We had expected only 15 people to arrive at our first meeting – we got 50. Not even two weeks afterwards, our supporters numbered in the hundreds. Each day it seems like the fire of the cultural revolt against political correctness, lead on the national stage by Donald Trump, is spreading to more and more people.

It is not difficult to see why so many people support him: he is exactly what we need in politics. This election is not about conservatives against liberals – this election is about putting America first. By that I mean it is about electing a strong candidate that will look after America and its people, instead of pandering to special interests and multinational corporations. Trump is open and frank about his desire to do just that. How can any of us object to putting America first in trade deals instead of pure Wall Street globalism that exploits third world workers abroad and destroys domestic jobs? How can any of us object to halting nation building in the Middle East and instead nation building here in America?

For me, Making America Great Again means putting Americans interests at the forefront of policy again. We have elected leaders whose jobs are to represent Americans, and they are out there fighting for illegal immigrants, or special interests, or foreign countries, all at the cost of the well-being of Americans.

Trump speaks simply and plainly. We can understand and trust what he says. He does not twist his words to pander to audiences. Politicians try to give us the runaround, but he is not afraid to step on someone’s toes by the way he speaks. Furthermore, he is self-funded. He is not beholden to any donors, be it billionaires, corporations, banks, or foreign interests. The only interest he is beholden to is the interest of the American people.

When I say American people, I mean everyone, without regards to race, gender, religion, economic status or other divisions. There is too much sectarianism in American society nowadays. To quote Dr. Carson, “We, the American People, are not each other’s enemies. The enemies are those people behind the curtain jerking everybody’s chains and trying to divide us up by age, by race, by income”. It is time to stop fighting amongst ourselves. It is time for us to unite as Americans. Trump will do that.

If you’re still skeptical, ask yourself this question: how can he possibly be worse than what politician after politician has done in office? Our politicians over the last 16 years spied on our allies, massacred civilians with remote controlled planes, spent more money than we have, supported the ineffective businesses and structures that caused the Great Recession, and invaded a country without figuring out how to get back out of that country, despite doing the very same thing 40 years prior. How could Trump be WORSE than the parade of ineffective and self-serving legislators that march into the Capitol and White House everyday?

By itself, the fact that he is universally hated by the current political establishment consisting of out of touch politicians in power, beholden to special interests, and deadlocked in partisan ideological power struggles – makes me want to vote for him. It is time to take our country back.

Respectfully,

Dmitri A. Loutsik

Penn State Students for Trump, Chief of Staff

@TheTab