I hope you all will be lined up at the Student Center for tonight’s 7:00pm showing of “V for Vendetta.” With its political themes as well as compelling thriller qualities, this dystopian film springs from a “What If?” perspective of a post-WWII world in favor of the Axis Powers. While I have always liked the film and its depiction of the rise of the common people against their government, I started wondering if our own “superpower” country were anything like that of the film’s oppressive government.
The Internet’s IMDb site labels “V for Vendetta’s” UK government as fascist, which is far-right on the left-right political spectrum. Of course, the U.S. does not implement ideals fascism holds like opposing democracy or having dictators. However, this far-right perspective is in favor of anti-immigration, which Donald Trump especially is promoting. I believe that agenda is a step toward that extremist direction.
I am amazed at the personal opinions I have heard that consider Trump’s wall to be reasonable, contrasted with those who see it as laughable. I would definitely count myself with the latter, standing on the left with Bernie Sanders for the exact opposite proposition: to open our doors.
Shutting our borders—and especially building a wall on the Mexico border—for me goes beyond rejecting American melting pot values. It harks towards a stronger shift towards ethnic cleansing. Why doesn’t Trump want his wall on our northern border? Anti-Immigration then reads much more like racism than anything else.
One argument I have heard is that it would be unsafe to open up our southern border to let “those people” in. My response to that would be that if any new immigrants—or actually, anybody in society—commits a crime that makes that one individual a threat to society, that they should be dealt with individually. And in my opinion, the law should intervene and rehabilitate them before immediately locking them up or sending them away as a knee-jerk reaction. Beyond anything else, society needs to stop lumping people together and assuming things of people based on where they came from, creating terrible stigmas. No civilian is responsible for the state of their country, whether good or bad.
I see having a Republican and a Democratic party as being the United States’ attempt to keep our government from leaning towards extremes of government seen as threatening (communism and fascism).
As a democracy that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people” (Lincoln) I do not see our great country vulnerable to the fate of “V for Vendetta’s” depiction of the UK. But I do see anti-immigration—and especially Trump’s ridiculous wall—as racist and leaning towards a way of government and living that turns its back on Americans, like the equal opportunity to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.
