By Jesse Warner

We don’t want America to be great again, but simply distracted while we blame anybody but ourselves of the problems around us. To me, that is more dangerous than anything Donald Trump has to say. The country has lost the election already, by showing the true faces of the people in it, and even worse—uniting them.

Trump has successfully unleashed a populist message that rings well with the very rich and very poor, those who are dissatisfied with the direction of the country. Win or lose, the damage has already been done, and it’s our fault.

Income inequality in America is at an all time high and critical thinking is at an all time low, making the perfect equation for a Trump to rise up. The loudmouth, racist, xenophobic message that he carries with him is explicit, though the unspoken truths are much more dangerous.

This is not to say that hateful rhetoric is not dangerous as well. We have already seen the impacts of Trump’s speeches by looking at the justified violence at his rallies. Not only is Trump himself validating this by pledging to pay legal fees of anybody that commits violence against a protestor, but the media is encouraging nonstop coverage of his ridiculous antics.

By the news covering him, the message given off is that the things he says are valid. Networks are not condemning his words. Instead, those already with hate-filled beliefs now feel empowered to seek out more information and people who agree with them. These groups of people have a lot of anger, but not a lot of direction, leading to a revolutionary crash course.

The President of the United States, the most powerful position in the world, entails a great deal of knowledge and plans towards objectives and goals. “Make America Great Again” is not a plan; it is ambiguity to avoid scrutiny.

When a politician puts forth a plan, they become transparent, vulnerable and easily preyed on. Politics has officially become less about plans and more about ideas.

Perhaps millennials are growing up and realizing that the people they looked up to didn’t have it together at their age either, or that having a degree doesn’t mean that you are qualified.

Maybe the message carries that the person at work with all the ideas gets promoted, while the person with the most degrees gets fired.

Obama won his candidacy on the idea of “hope” and “change” capturing the idealistic mindsets of our generation. Trump is working with people so desperate that they are grasping any idea that sounds right and hoping it will work.

Another theory is perhaps I am the millennial that thinks they know it all, and this is all part of a bigger scheme. Maybe Trump doesn’t actually believe all of the things he’s saying. He has not expressed this level of racism or xenophobia until he announced his campaign.

It is true that he has been in the media for almost his entire life. Manipulating it is much easier if you know how it works. Trump has managed to stay in the spotlight from day one, which is no surprise due to his experience as an entertainer. The last time we had an actor turned politician, and a Democrat turned Republican was Ronald Reagan.

The real issue at hand is the fact that nobody has asked Trump the simple questions that any journalist should be asking to cover any story, who, what, when and why? The lack of general concern from voters and journalists alike is the reason for a lack of transparency in policy. It is a dangerous world when people don’t ask questions

According to MLK, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”