By Guy Ciarrocchi
Former President Donald Trump. Maybe you like him, maybe you don’t.
Of all the attacks on Trump, the line of attack that is most bizarre, backward, and most disconnected from reality is that he’s the cause of America’s tension, chaos and division.
That’s like blaming the firemen rushing to the scene — with their alarms blaring — for making too much noise or causing the fire. Whether or not the siren is too loud, or whether it offends you or brings you comfort knowing help is on the way, the firemen are the response.
Whether you think the fire is just smoke, a well-intended bonfire, or a five-alarm-fire, the firemen came because someone pulled the alarm and the fire needs to be put out — whether you think the call was unnecessary or helpful, or are unsure.
Trump is the fireman. The fireman that much of the nation has been waiting for. To millions of Americans, too many of the fires are still burning. Biden and Harris allowed or encouraged some arsonists, poured gasoline on the fires, and now sit powerless watching our enemies set fires around the world.
To many Americans, it was as if Hollywood, higher education, Big Tech, legacy media and the Democrats had conspired for years to tear down, rip apart, or mock the most important, functional, and essential parts of our lives, our communities, and our nation.
It wasn’t Trump that allowed millions of illegal immigrants into our nation. It wasn’t he who didn’t vet them, or who handed them a slip of paper asking them to report to a court hearing date two years from when they crossed over. He didn’t create “sanctuary cities” or refuse to deport known criminals — even after they were arrested. He didn’t choose to deposit tens of thousands of them in small towns, allow known felons and terrorists into our nation, give them free housing, cell phones, cash and medical care — or, suggested that taxpayers pay for their gender transition surgery.
It wasn’t Trump that passed legislation that helped put American manufacturers out of business — that encouraged manufacturing to move to Mexico and China.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters that thought it was a good idea to have drag queen story time with elementary and middle schoolers. They didn’t support pornographically explicit books in middle schools and teachers discussing sexual orientation — and their personal sex lives — with students. They didn’t allow students to change their names, clothes and gender at school, with all of it purposefully kept away from the students’ own parents.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters that decided — after the overwhelming election and re-election of a black President — that America was systemically racist. They didn’t judge that CRT was needed or helpful and that school children should be divided into “victims” and “oppressors,” separating and dividing children who had been friends, teammates and even prom dates. they didn’t create DEI departments on college campuses and in corporate America to further divide us, or introduce bizarre allegations of discrimination with word games developed to play “gotcha.”
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters that created “hate-speech” word lists, invented the silliness of “cultural appropriation,” the term “micro-aggressions” and “cancel culture,” causing division and anxiety.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters or his Party that decided to elect DAs who focused on decriminalizing felonies, letting criminals out of jail, and harassing the police, or allowed Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland and even Philadelphia to burn for days.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who created mask mandates, vaccine mandates, vaccine passports. It wasn’t them who fired our military, first responders and nurses (among others) who refused the Covid vaccine, or paid people not to work, or created “snitch lines” to encourage citizens to rat on each other, or ordered local police and national guard to shoot paint balls at people who dared to go outdoors.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who developed the “climate crisis,” threw paint at artwork, tied-up traffic, declared expiration dates for gasoline-powered cars and trucks, impeded American gas and oil, called for fracking and fossil-fuel bans, forced prices to skyrocket and caused America to import oil, batteries and solar panels from our enemies — who are getting rich and making the air dirtier.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who chant anti-Semitic filth, wave Hamas banners, build encampments on our colleges, march through our cities, or stand silent in the face of antisemitism and violence.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who said that you can’t define a woman; that there are more than two genders and that grown men should compete against women in high school, college, and Olympic sports.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who changed the focus of our military, so that generals now give speeches and testify about our military’s focus on fighting “climate change” and run classes on DEI, genders and pronouns while terrorists infiltrate our nation, develop drone warfare, use cyber attacks, and let China steal our data and build the world’s largest navy.
And despite the nonsensical name-calling and shameless rhetoric throwing around the word “democracy,” it wasn’t Trump or his allies who have given speeches calling for limits on the First Amendment, colluded with Big Tech and legacy media to suppress opinions that challenge the White House, squashed opposing points of view during Covid (many of which were proven correct), and planned to pack the Supreme Court by expanding it and adding more and more justices until they get the politically motivated results that they want to achieve.
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who called Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, or Kamala Harris supporters “deplorables,” or attacked them for “clinging to their guns and God,” let alone ever called his fellow Americans “Nazis,” or his opponents “Hitler.”
It wasn’t Trump or his supporters who used the justice system to attack, harass, and prosecute his campaign opponent or his former staff and supporters — for the first time in American history. He let Hillary Clinton walk away and told his Justice department to stand down.
Neither Trump nor conservatives — whatever their flaws in language, tone or policies — have worked to purposefully challenge, undermine, or eliminate so much of our shared American traditions and customs, or attack the very Constitution that has been the basis of stability and liberty.
Trump is the response. And seeing more fires, more people are sounding the alarm so he’s back.
Like him or not. Support him or not. But millions want these fires put out. He’s shown us how we can fight back, how America can and should be great again.
As long as anyone inside or out of America sets fire to our shared culture, our institutions and our Constitution, we’ll always need firemen — and contractors — to put things back together. The way they were —and should be.
He’s the responder, not the arsonist. Anyone suggesting otherwise either helped start the fires, likes the fires burning, or cares only about power and not people.
With Kamala’s help, they broke it. He’s here to fix it — again. And now, Trump no longer stands alone.
Guy Ciarrocchi is a writer for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania where this originally appeared on November 1, 2024. He is a former Republican nominee for Congress and strategist. The views expressed may not necessarily represent any of his affiliated organizations. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy.
The views expressed here are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Susquehanna Valley Center for Public Policy.
Nothing contained here should be considered as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any legislation.