Dear Republican Presidential Candidates (except Gov. Kasich),
I am a middle school social studies teacher, and you are making my job harder than ever. In schools across the world teachers are trying to teach their students to be decent human beings to each other and value education. You are making that job harder. You are daily on the news acting like children, showing no value for facts, bullying each other, and plainly acting worse than little children I see on the playground. How has this happened? I know that recent political elections and debates haven’t lived up to the Lincoln-Douglas debate by any means, but there was always some sense of decency amongst the candidates. Now, however, you have stooped to the lowest level I have seen in my lifetime, and it is hard to educate children while you are dominating the national consciousness.
I know the biggest problem, we all do if we’re honest with ourselves. None of you are blameless, but you, Mr. Trump, are the most to blame. You have treated facts as jokes. You have riled up your supporters behind blatantly racist ideas calling Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists, when in fact the FACT is that a lower percentage of Mexican immigrants commit crimes than do white American born people. You have called for the banning of Muslim immigrants to our shores and mentioned that you thought it was a good idea to force Muslim-Americans to have identification cards. I thought for sure when you said this, that your numbers would tumble and you would shamefully remove yourself from the race with an apology.
Astonishingly, the opposite happened, you refused to apologize and this shockingly emboldened your supporters and amazingly your poll numbers went up. How? Why? These are a few of the many questions that I struggle with on a daily basis. How has such a large number of citizens from my beautiful home country supported such an openly xenophobic and racist candidate? How can I possibly educate the youth of America and the world while we watch you being so outwardly rude, disrespectful, racist and hateful? How can we encourage and inspire the youth of America to be the best that they can be when you represent the worst that America has to offer? Mr. Trump you are a disgrace to America and what she stands for, but you clearly have not done this alone.
Senator Rubio and Senator Cruz, you had and still have an opportunity. You have mostly squandered it by playing the silly game that Mr. Trump started. You didn’t have to play his game, but you looked at polls and clearly decided that the only way to win was to jump in the same mud pile he was living in and wrestle with the beast. You could have and still can take the high road. You have to immediately and unequivocally denounce his racist and xenophobic threats. You have a chance to redefine the Republican Party and redefine the shape of presidential debates in America, but you have to care about more than just winning. If all you want to do is get elected (and I understand that motivation) then you, and America will lose. You can’t out con a conman. You can’t win if you play by his rules, but America still can. You have a lot of options available to you, but being President is not one of them. Your diving into the fight with Mr. Trump makes my job as a teacher infinitely harder. When the leaders of a country act as you and Mr. Trump are, kids see it and take it to heart. Where are the role models that I can point my students to within government? Where are the Lincolns, Roosevelts and Oliver Wendell Holmes in today’s Republican Party? They’re clearly not running for President.
Governor Kasich, thank you. I can often point my students towards you as a reasonable man who genuinely has the best interests of his country in mind. But often my students say, “but he’s losing?” I know you are losing the battle, but you’re winning the war. It may not look like it now, but you are.
Mr. Trump, Sen. Cruz and Sen. Rubio, I end my letter by pleading with you. Make our job easier. It is never easy to teach the youth of the world and encourage them to be the best that they can be, but it makes our job all that harder when they see “adults” trying to be the leader of their country being the worst of themselves, and sirs, I’m sorry to say, but that is exactly what you’re doing right now.
With Hope,
Bryan Rusin
