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Do people look to understand what is being said, or do we just cling to fancy slogans? For 10 years, Trump has been saying,  “Make America Great Again”. Great slogan, but what does it mean? I am going to be totally honest with you, “Make America Great Again” means absolutely nothing. Why would I say that? Because if you were to ask 20 people out there, there would be 20 different answers. What did we do to make America great in the first place? What did we do to make America not great? When Trump started saying it, 10 years ago, Barack Obama was President. Trump, at that time, was like the unofficial head of the birther movement, trying to claim Obama was not a born American. Obama was the first African American President in the history of the United States. I think it kills Trump that Barack Obama was one of the most respected and popular Presidents around the World since Reagan. Funny thing is, since Trump got elected President, he has been trying to eliminate Obama from the history books. I try and figure out what Obama did that made it so America wasn’t great, and the only thing that I can figure out is that, in Trump's eyes, and through the eyes of many of his supporters, America can’t be great if it had a Black President.

Trump and his supporters also like the slogan “America First”. The America First slogan is not a new slogan at all. It was first used in the 1850s nativist “America Party”, also called the “Know Nothing” in the 1850s. It has stood for many different things for over 150 years. The anti-Catholics used it, and so did the Ku Klux Klan. This isolationist used it both pre-WWI and WWII. In some ways, it was a kind of identity politics. The saying is rich in prejudice and violence throughout our history. Historians Steve Fraser and Joshue B. Freeman lend their opinion on the “Know Nothing” and the “Tea Party” movement, stating, “Tea Party populism should also be thought of as a kind of 'identity politics' of the right. Almost entirely White and disproportionately male and older,  Tea Party advocates express a visceral anger at the cultural and, to some extent, political eclipse of an America in which people who look and thought like them were dominant (and echo, in its own way, of the anguish of the Know-Nothings). A Black President, a female speaker of the House, and a gay head of the House Financial Services Committee are evidently almost too much to bear. Though the anti-immigration and the Tea Party movements so far remain largely distinct, they share an emotional grammar: the fear of displacement.”

Now we have Trump and his MAGA movement using the America First pretty much the same way it was used in the past. It is being used because of the fear of displacement, and to put it more accurately, it is the fear of replacement. Trump supporters carrying torches, shouting “Jews will not replace us,” and Trump refusing to condemn them. He is doing away with DEI and replacing women and minorities, claiming that they were DEI hires. When you look at how they are obsessed with getting all the immigrants out of the country, legal or illegal, you truly understand the America First agenda. If you are anti-Black, you are probably a Trump supporter. If you are anti-women, you are probably a Trump supporter. If you are anti-Jewish, you are probably a Trump supporter. If you are anti-Gay, you are probably a Trump supporter. I am sure you are seeing a pattern of not really America First, but anti-anything that challenges the supremacy of the White male.

Trump has no intention of putting America First. This “Make America Great Again” is just a slogan that has no meaning at all. What Trump has been doing is weakening the nation because of all the division that he has intentionally caused. Fancy slogans with no real substance behind them just get him votes from people who are looking for someone to blame. His fancy slogans just feed people hatred and bigotry.

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