Last Sunday, October 27, Donald Trump and his entourage attended one of the World Series games. When his attendance was announced and live video of him was shown on the massive jumbotron, he was met with boos and chants. The arena was booming with voices. Angry audience members used this opportunity to undoubtfully voice their opinions on everything that he is and what he represents. “Lock him up” was one of the led chants directed towards Trump due to his recent legal scandals being reported on. This display of protesting those in power resulted in an awkward reaction from the president and his friends, as they were shown laughing and clapping along. A similar humiliating situation also happened at a recent UFC game.

For Donald Trump, this is something that doesn’t happen very often. The president has a history of solely attending events filled with “his” people. Rallies with pro-Trump mania are what he’s used to, filled with an abundance of cheering, chanting and screams. The behavior is not only nationalistic, but eerily resembles past dictator’s, such as Hitler’s own rallies to motivate supporters by utilizing propaganda. But, let us not forget what else these events hold. It is common knowledge that Donald Trump at these rallies, online and over Twitter, has a history of using horrible words and chants to personally berate and criticize his opponents. During the 2016 Presidential election, he rarely would call Hilary Clinton her name without using the word “Crooked” beforehand. He encouraged his supporters to chant “Lock her up” at Clinton to bring back attention to the email scandal from years before. He continues to use hateful words to describe members of the United States government daily, starting a trend for his supporters to follow. He started off his campaign for the 2016 election labeling Mexicans as “rapists” and accusing them of “bringing crime and drugs” into the country. Continuing on, in June of this year, Trump tweeted to four congresswomen of colour to “go back” to their own countries and leave the USA because of their recent criticism of him, which is blatantly racist and outwardly unacceptable as a white president to say to a group of immigrant woman. Time and time again, Trump has used name-calling as a defense and offense against his peers. Looking into his past words, this wouldn’t be okay if anyone else were to be acting like this, creating a new low normal for what the president, now, has the power to say.

The anti-trump public have labeled Trump unprofessional and candidly disrespectful for this use of mob-mentality to bully. Yet, these are the same people that are screaming hateful words right back at him. Although, this situation is the epitome of exercising their democratic right to speak their mind and express their true opinions on someone of high power, aren’t they just stooping down to his low level of name-calling. Growing up, our society is taught that one can’t “fight fire with fire.” To do so is the easy way out. We need to be careful with how we react to his negative traits, in order to raise the bar of what we expect from a person in such a high-status position. If we continue to dig deeper and deeper down the hole of disrespect, the way we interact with those different with us will only get worse. It is a slippery slope, that only results in hatred and entitlement. At this point, it shouldn’t be about who can give the worst insult, nor giving a person a taste of their own medicine. Staying quiet and accepting things that you don’t agree with isn’t the main point, but instead, opposing those who you oppose should be done in a serious, educated and open-minded way. Calling people names, labeling their characters and discrediting their opinions does nothing but set back the progression of the human race. Even though Donald Trump and the way he communicates his ideas is the complete opposite of this mindset, as Michelle Obama says, “When they go low, we go high.” This is essential in a positive progression of society and democracy as a whole.

Photo courtesy of Slate