“We don’t want them in our country! We don’t want them to change the way we think, and we don’t want them promoting their dangerous ideology! If you can’t respect this country and what is stands for, then leave!”

These were the words, albeit slightly paraphrased, of a Donald Trump supporter. And, frankly, I couldn’t agree more.

We currently have a group of people in this great nation of ours who are hell bent to change this nation on a fundamental level away from its original ideals and beliefs. They seek to impose their own way of life and religion upon everyone else. They want to impose their own interpretation of their Holy Law upon the majority of the people of America, despite the fact that America has shown time and time again that we don’t agree with them. They continue to become radicalized, listening to everyone from their religious leaders down to the people in their home country who encourage their dangerous ideals to help destroy the America we know and love.

They have found a leader, and they have rallied behind him. This man, this charismatic man, this larger than life figure who makes them feel like victims in their own land. This man, this idealistic man, who is able to whip up a crowd and create devout followers. This man, this religious holy man, able to twist the ideas and words of a faith and misinterpret them ad-nausea on purpose for his own goals for conquest. This man has radicalized a group of people to follow his own brand of will. He has even recently had a portion of the nations law enforcement swear allegiance to him.

The followers are devout and unwilling to listen to facts when they are presented to them. They will follow their leaders to the edge of the cliff, all in the process destroying America and imposing their own rules and laws upon us. They seek nothing more than the complete and utter annihilation of a religion that they don’t agree with. Motivated by fear, enhanced with the knowledge that there are others that want the same goals, they have already begun to stop at nothing to ensure that their leader is put into power.

They’ve beaten and removed people who voiced opposition to their leader. Some have even killed innocent people in the name of their ideology.

I am writing, of course, about the supporters of Donald Trump and the brand of Far-Right thinking he represents.

To echo the words of a supporter of his, I agree, I don’t want these people in my country. I don’t want them to change the way we think, and I don’t want them promoting their dangerous ideologies of hatred towards Mexicans, Blacks, and Muslims, among others. I want them, instead, to respect what this country stands for; Freedom of religion and speech. That we are all equal, even if in some cases it takes longer than it should for that be acknowledged. That we are a nation of laws, of respect, and more. And, yes, I acknowledge the pure and simple irony of all of this.

The announcement of Donald Trump on December 7th, 2015, that he would ban all Muslims, even American Citizens, from entering the country is a step I doubt anyone thought would be made by any serious candidate for office in their lifetime. This has lead to a serious discussion of fascism in our mainstream political discussion that I’ve only seen when referring to countries such as France and Greece. That far-right extremists in those countries took advantage of social and economic strife in order to get a foot hold, and in the last decade parties such as the Golden Dawn Party and the National Front have come into power.

These same forces of extreme nationalism in the face of fear have grown in America as well, and they have now materialized in the form of a candidate like Donald Trump.

It would be ignorant to claim that Trump alone is to blame. The sheer fact is that his views have been echoed by candidates such as Jeb Bush and his comment of how we should “only let in Christians.” Then there’s Chris Christie’s ban on Syrian Refugees, including even children. Then we have the dangerous rhetoric and the false narrative of Planned Parenthood selling “baby parts”, an idea echoed by Carly Fiorina and then, later, by the shooter of Planned Parenthood in Colorado. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson all went to an event with a Christian Preacher who promoted, without shame or regret, the fact that he wanted, and encourage, violence against homosexuals. All three men heard these remarks and embraced him.

Trump is the personification of these ideals. He has taken the anti-Immigrant feelings and put them into the rhetoric of putting up a wall and having Mexico pay for it. He has taken the feelings people having about the recent terrorist attacks and focused it on anti-Muslim ideals to the same extremes that were used at the beginning of Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930’s. It is now up to us, as a nation, to say that those aren’t the ideals of America and that we reject them.

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