THE PRESIDENCY OF FALSE ADVERTISING

“Make America Great Again” is nothing more than a dangerously effective marketing campaign.

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For centuries Chinese culture has used snake oil as medicine because it’s high concentration of omega 3 acids help combat and reduce inflammation. It was first introduced to America in the early 1900’s when tens of thousands of Chinese indentured laborers arrived to work on the Transcontinental Railroad.

At this point in it’s history snake oil wasn’t a product, it was just a homemade remedy that Chinese workers graciously shared with their American counterparts because it helped alleviate the type of joint pain that comes from long days days of intense manual labour. The use of the oil continued uninterrupted in this manner for decades until it was opportunistically reappropriated and branded as an “elixir” during the boom of patent medicines that were often advertised on the back pages of the newspapers, advertised as a “cure-all ” for everything from headaches to chronic pain. Once the oil slipped into commercialization it wasn’t long at all before the version being sold contained little or none of the ingredient that makes it effective.

In 1906 this type of unsavory activity prompted the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act which was legislation aimed at protecting consumers against false advertising and sub par products. Famously, in 1917, the government seized a shipment from one of the countries largest “snake oil” producers and after testing, it was determined that the bottles contained nothing more than beef fat, pepper and turpentine. Out of this event the term “snake oil salesman” was born.

Make no mistake, at it’s core, “Make America Great Again” is snake oil and Trump’s administrators are merely the brands spokespeople and salesmen. The slogan is powerful, evocative and on some begrudging level it’s admittedly clever, but it’s simultaneously divisive, dangerous and just empty rhetoric designed to force people to choose a side on issues that don’t really exist.

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The slogan also implies two basic things that require audience buy in for it to be effective. The first is the belief that America was once great and secondly, a belief that America is now fundamentally broken. Both of these things may actually be true, but the decline of America (as it’s being heavily implied)has nothing to do with immigration, a shrinking manufacturing sector or bad trade deals and has everything to do with lack of affordable healthcare, racial inequality, lack of rights within the LGBTQ community, the unequal distribution of wealth and the countries stubborn unwillingness to address gun control in even the most preliminary manner.

This administrations platform consists of the idea of change only, which would be fine if the ideas were compassionate, logical and well formulated with a clear direction forward, but they do not. What’s most alarming is that America’s political threatre plays on the world stage and it’s incredibly complex issues require complex solutions. The policy choices the government makes have massive ripple effects throughout the rest of the world, and a lack of understanding of this concept poses a clear and present danger to all of us, no matter how removed from the situation we are.

A good portion of Americans are being hoodwinked and need protection from being sold ideas that don’t list their ingredients on the bottle. The greatest leaders in history were experts at uniting nations and encouraging people explore similarities while embracing each other’s differences. Sadly, this is something that Trump’s limited skillset renders him completely and utterly incapable of.

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