4 truths Trump supporters need to remember
*I simple, says Ray Salazar. What we need to remember about Donald Trump is the stuff we learned at home, the things we know because we learned them from our family and friends. VL
By Ray Salazar, The White Rhino
I hesitated to write a commentary about Donald Trump because of the Spanish saying, “No le quiero dar importancia.” I don’t think he’s worth my time. But after his arrogant behavior at a recent Iowa press conference—where he kicked out a prominent Latino journalist Jorge Ramos—I remembered a few lessons I learned in my 20s that Trump supporters need to remember.
- Watch how a person treats others. That’s how he or she will eventually treat you.
Trump only listens to people who agree with him. While the start of his campaign is unfortunately invigorating for many, Trump isn’t used to having people question him. We’ve seen this many times on his show, The Apprentice, where he doesn’t appear any more because of his inaccurate generalizations about Mexicans. And if he doesn’t like someone, he disengages by shooting ugly personal attacks.
To insult the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for publishing unemployment numbers (which is their job), he called them a “bunch of clowns. Bunch of real clowns.”
[pullquote]Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.[/pullquote]When Trump became upset with a female journalist’s questions about his attitude toward women during a Republican debate, Trump expanded his put downs of her by saying, “There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever.”
Trump’s arrogance demonstrates an ignorance about democracy. In the Trump administration (I can’t believe I’m writing that), the value of exchanging ideas and understanding others’ perspectives won’t exist.
Democracy won’t exist.
Others people’s views or feelings don’t matter to Trump.
He even trivialized his own daughter: “She does have a very nice figure,”he said in a TV interview with his daughter at his side–at his side. “I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps, I would be dating her.”
Trump supporters will be ridiculed, bullied, and trivialized, too, when this honeymoon phase is over.
- When people show you who they are, believe them.
Trump didn’t like Jorge Ramos–who many refer to as the Spanish Walter Cronkite because of his reach and influence–questioning him.
OK, maybe Jorge Ramos should have waited to be called on. But let’s be honest—Trump was NOT going to call on Ramos at the press conference.
This article was originally published in The White Rhino.
Since 1995, Ray has been an English teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. In 2003, Ray earned an M.A. in Writing, with distinction, from DePaul University. In 2009, he received National Board Certification. His writing aired on National Public Radio and Chicago Public Radio many times and have been published in the Chicago Tribune and CNN. For thirty years, Ray lived in Chicago’s 26th Street neighborhood. Today, he lives a little more south and a little more west in the city with his wife, son, and daughter.
[Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr]