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    • Trump does not believe in American values. We must fight back
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    Trump does not believe in American values. We must fight back

    Umito Posted on

    If ever there was a time in our modern history to mobilize the idea and reality of America, and to mobilize Americans, it is now.

    Vincent Jungkunz
    | Guest columnist

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    Vincent Jungkunz is an associate professor of political science at Ohio University.

    Although my father was mayor of our small Ohio town for only one term, he never really stopped being a politician.

    For him, being a politician meant being someone who wanted to help make the world a better place.

    He never met a stranger.

    My father would talk to anyone, teaching each of them a basic level of respect and dignity.

    When he was at the post office or the grocery store, when he was asked questions about a stop sign, a street light or about village finances, my father would talk and listen, until the one to whom he spoke seemed satisfied with his answers, even if they disagreed with him, everyone deserved human engagement.

    Our political adversaries are neither enemies nor demons

    Political scientist Murray Edelman discussed the difference between “adversaries” and “enemies.”

    The adversaries are those with whom we disagree, and yet, even though we would probably choose very different policies, we could ultimately share a meal or have a beer over a conversation about our lives .

    The “enemies” are very different, and the consequences of seeing each other as enemies are profoundly different. Enemies are not only those we disagree with, but enemies are also those we cannot coexist with.

    Recently, Donald Trump called Democrats “evil.”

    This is an example of defining those who should be political adversaries as irredeemable enemies.

    America must return to our “aspirational values”

    My father did not view people as enemies, and he believed deeply in an America where, as Kamala Harris reminded us, we have more in common than what sets us apart. The results of this election certainly call into question the feasibility of his call for unity, which could dissuade many of us from even considering a unity effort.

    This is one more reason why we need to come together; speak proactively and intentionally about our commonalities as Americans; and together constitute a New America.

    Mail: Democrats Just Taught America How to Lose an Election in 5 Steps

    Our “aspirational values” define what and who is American. This must be our foundation moving forward. The Declaration of Independence lays the foundations:

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

    As Americans, we cherish freedom, equal opportunity, democracy, individualism, individuality, hard work, fairness, respect, dignity, authority based on consent, decency and freedom. As we all know, from the beginning of the country, many people were excluded from these values.

    The invention of “races,” “white,” and “black” meant that our institutions, the protection of our laws, and our rights guaranteed by our Constitution were completely inaccessible to First Peoples and enslaved Black Americans.

    In some ways, the devastating contrast between a country founded on equality and freedom so steeped in the inhumanity of slavery was ever-present. Black Americans such as Frederick Douglass fought for their freedom and worked to dismantle false narratives of a hierarchy of human values ​​through our aspirational values. He moved the needle toward freedom.

    Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote the Declaration of feelings and resolutions, where she brought public awareness to the injustices of the American patriarchy. She moved the needle toward freedom.

    And all along, everyday people have been engaging in conversations about these enormous moral failings of our nation.

    Some have begun to discuss how to bridge the gap between our aspirational values ​​and our reality as a nation. As the nation’s aspirational values ​​have become more widely accessible to those once denied, our identity as Americans has become more closely knit around the core ideals that define us as a nation, and we have given birth to the American dream.

    Notice: The election of Donald Trump in 2024 sounds the death knell for experimentation. Democracy is dead.

    Trump has built a platform by humiliating and degrading those he considers his enemies.

    Donald Trump doesn’t believe in our values ​​and aspirational ideals, and he wants you to devalue those same ideals that made us Americans.

    If ever there was a time in our modern history to mobilize the idea and reality of America, and to mobilize Americans, it is now. Donald Trump has sold his supporters on the impossibility of a better life with him by humiliating, denigrating, mocking, attacking and demonizing those he considers his enemies.

    Now is the time for us to directly challenge Trumpism through our institutions, our work, our families, and, most importantly, our culture of a new America, and to restore and expand our aspirational values, our rights to life, freedom and happiness for all.

    We may be adversaries from time to time, but we should always reject the politics of defining other human beings as enemies, because policies that make our neighbors enemies are beneath us.

    This is not worthy of the ambitious values ​​that have already made America great.

    Vincent Jungkunz is an associate professor of political science at Ohio University. He teaches a wide range of courses on racial politics, democratic theory, political theory, and American politics.. He is also a leader in the Culture of Health Leadership Institute for Racial Healing.

    Umito
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