Dominic is a sophomore political science major and writes "Dominic's Politics" for the Daily News. His views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Dominic at dabordenaro@bsu.edu.
Together.
Together means so many things. It means love, hope, strength and courage. It means building bridges and crossing lines.
Together is also a word that Donald Trump now seems to love. Over and over in his State of the Union speech he used that word. He often repeated that we need to “come together." He also touted bipartisanship and stated that the “State of our Union is strong.”
He even wore a blue tie.
He said that we have “set to restore bonds of trust between citizen and government.” He also said “this is your time” and “one team, one people.”
Is the real America and Donald’s America the same?
No. Unfortunately, we are not together.
You see, in his world, it has never been a better time to begin living the American Dream. That is unless you are a Dreamer, LGBT, Black, Latino, have student loan debt, don’t earn equal pay or you’re a woman.
Trump made many promises and claims in his first SOTU speech. One of those claims is that he delivered the largest tax cuts in American history, which according to Politifact is false. In fact, most of the tax cuts go to the rich. They don’t help the average American. The stock market may be at an all-time high but how is that helping millions in debt afford higher education? The rich keep getting rich while the rest of us are stuck.
Trump also failed to mention what may cause a government shutdown next week: Dreamers. Yes, he mentioned illegal immigrants, referring to Dreamers, but I refuse to call them that.
Dreamers are Americans. They know no other country than the USA and should be treated as such. They need our love, our compassion and our protection. They need the safety of knowing they are welcome here, that they are wanted here.
The state of our union is strong? How is it strong when Russia’s hands are in our elections, bullets are raining in our schools, hate is marching up and down our streets freely and trans individuals are being murdered?
Like Joe Kennedy said in the Democratic party’s response, “the State of our Union is hopeful.”
It is hopeful. Trump said in his speech that “together we can achieve absolutely anything.”
He’s right. Together we can flip the house in 2018. We can hand power over to the Democratic party and finally we can get some bipartisan work done. We can stop this hate-filled administration from enacting more of its terrible agenda and work together.
Only then can we use the word “together.”