Hannah Soyer
[email protected]

This past weekend, protesters against Donald Trump held signs at a tailgate for the Iowa/Iowa State game in Ames, where Trump was visiting. One of these protesters, Jovani Rubio, held a sign that said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter,” a sign that Shelby Mueller, another tailgater, decided to rip in half. These actions were recorded on video and have since received more than 34,000 views. In the video, Mueller is also heard saying that she is going to rip a different sign that said “A vote for Trump is a vote for white supremacy.”

Mueller has issued a statement apologizing for her actions and also said that since this incident, she has become more aware of the inequalities facing people around the country. I don’t know if this true or just a statement made to mollify the many people she made angry. What I do know is that this type of behavior seriously frightens me. Honestly, the type of behavior displayed by many Trump supporters scares me.

This type of behavior by Trump supporters isn’t new — on Sep. 9, protesters of Trump’s immigration policies were assaulted at the rally in support of them. Protesters were yelled at, spit on, and one protester allegedly had her hair violently yanked by someone at the rally, bringing her to tears.

Supporters of  Trump claim that his not being politically correct or worried about hurting people’s feelings is refreshing. But Trump isn’t just not being “politically correct” in his statements such as calling women “fat pigs,” “dogs,” “slobs,” and “disgusting animals,” he’s showing the public his innermost beliefs, and Trump’s beliefs will ultimately affect the decisions he makes if — God forbid — he were to be elected president. Trump has since made a statement saying that he “loves women,” but his other comments, even if said jokingly, are undermining the struggles women have had to go through for ages to fight for liberty, which they are ultimately still fighting for.

I have had much more experience with supporters of Trump than Trump himself, but the mere fact that he is able to arouse such ignorant, hateful actions is terrifying, despite the horror of many of his viewpoints. Trump’s campaign platform can be found just about anywhere, along with criticisms of it, and so I am not going to simply rehash them.

But here’s something to consider: the decision of who will be the next president does affect real people. It’s easy to be apathetic about the election and think that it actually doesn’t matter who is elected because they won’t do anything that will actually affect you. And that may be, but their decisions will affect others. It’s really impossible to know what a presidential candidate would be able to accomplish if they won the election, because their claims are made without any regard to Congress. However, if Trump is able to create a rallying point for people bent on being closed-minded and subtly hateful just by being a candidate, I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if he were elected.