The President of the United States is the most powerful man in the world. And whether you are speaking within a small community or to other powerful people in the world, there is a sense of respect that is assumed to be utilized by both parties.
Unfortunately, however, our president, Donald J Trump, has repeatedly failed to employ this amount of respect to other countries and civilians on numerous occasions, with his most recent case—and quite possibly one of his worst—being his reference in a meeting to underdeveloped nations in Africa as “sh*****e countries.”
Not only does this the horrifying moral conscience of our president, who would even consider other people to be worth less than others because of their economic and geographic status, but also the extreme lack of respect that stems from our president.
In another sense, all these cases come back to one thing—political correctness. Trump ran on a campaign of refusing to abide by the unspoken rules of political correctness in order to seem more relatable to American citizens, as he needed to find common ground after coming from such a wealthy background. This grapple for an average joe appeal among voters was thought to be just that—a campaign tactic. Yet, as Trump’s presidency continues on, this lack of political correctness is reaching new levels of disrespect that we have not seen from a president before. And what does that mean for us as American citizens?
First and foremost, Trump’s remarks in regards to diplomacy paint the United States as a disrespectful, self-absorbed nation, which does not accurately represent the majority of how many citizens truly feel or how many citizens in actuality would chastise such behavior if given the chance. Secondly, because this paints the country in such a poor light, this strains our diplomatic relationships and could have disastrous results when it comes to dealing with our more tense relations, like North Korea, as many of our allies may not support us when we employ such reckless and insulting language from our highest power.
As American citizens, while we cannot control the language of our president, we can still make our thoughts and presence known. We have so much power when it comes to the numbers and technology that we have today. We need to continue showing our retaliation for such words and offer our own political agenda: one of political correctness, where respect of each person is assumed, as is in our everyday life. Because when it comes to Trump’s “sh*****e countries,” it’s not just about politics. It’s personal—personal for the citizens of those referred countries, and personal for Americans who resent such language and behavior. So don’t take a back seat to this continuing issue, because it is likely to occur again. I urge you to take a stance for more political correctness, or at the least, demand respect. Because that’s the golden rule we grew up with: respect others as you want to be respected. Such a simple rule could make such a difference at the highest level, so why not fight to bring it back?