By Alex Rosenfeld ’20
Sticking Adidas on the feet of a 70-year-old chainsmoker will not make him an athlete. Putting red stripes on a Toyota Corolla will not make it a racecar. Slapping a coat of paint on a house that is burned to the ground will not make it prime real estate.
And praising your country and telling your citizens that they are the best will not make America great again.
The “America is the best, anyone who disagrees should get the hell out” approach that President Donald Trump is currently taking is not going to improve life for anyone, supporters or not. What America needs most at the moment is tough love; constructive criticism, acknowledgement of faults and respect.
Trump is a polarizing figure, splitting the nation over a variety of topics. How did Trump amass such a large quantity of supporters? The answer is simple: He has praised what they believe in.
It is the reason West Virginia has the highest approval rating for Trump in the country, as opposed to a state like Connecticut, which has one of the lowest. Trump has praised West Virginian workers. But has he done anything to help them? Nope.
Research from USA Today proves that Trump’s claims about jobs are untrue (he said over a million jobs were added; the real number was 70,000 nationwide). While this overestimating comes from a patriotic place, exaggerating numbers is not a good luck for the president. It is like lying about a test score to your parents— it will only hurt.
If you play a sport, you know that accepting criticism leads to better results. If you play soccer and don’t communicate, the team loses out as a whole. “You need to take criticism to learn and become a better teammate, because if you’re not willing to listen to what your teammates have to say, nobody is going to get better,” sophomore JV soccer player Reem Aly said. Sophomore JV soccer player Jordyn White agreed with Aly, saying that criticism helps one perform better.
Saying “America is the greatest country on earth” is just an opinion. A supportable opinion, yes; a noble opinion, of course. But it is an opinion that does not contribute to the betterment of the U.S.
There is a saying: “You can sit on your ass all day with your sneakers on the coffee table telling everyone you’re the champ, but unless you get results, no one will believe you.” Trump is not getting results, and his attacks against free speech only serve to drive a wedge between Americans.
Criticism is scary; it is not easy to take and it can feel personal. But it is necessary to make corrections. And our great nation needs a lot of corrections.
