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Hypocrisy: behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel.

President Donald Trump inspired many Americans to vote for him with the campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again”. These four words played a huge role in giving Trump something to celebrate about on election night, 2016. Three other words which may be just as important, although not quite as prominent to his campaign, were “Make America Safe”.

After all, safety is on the minds of every American, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, whether you live in Beverly Hills or Detroit, Michigan, and whether you support Trump or not. Safety means we can all put our heads down on our pillows at night without worrying that our families or friends will fall victim to a terrorist attack.

As the Republican-led House and Senate get over celebrating a monumental election day win, their goals should be set on upholding the promises of President Trump, including the goal of making America safe. Unfortunately, the actions that we have seen so far, don’t do anything close to this. Sure, we’ve heard talk of putting a border-wall up along the U.S. Mexican border — a move that arguably could or could not help American safety. However, the banning of refugees from 7 Muslim countries is a move that may make us “feel safer” but in the end probably won’t stop any terrorist attacks that would have happened without it.

Fact is, out of all of the terrorist attacks on American soil since the 1970s, exactly “Zero” of the attackers were refugees from these 7 countries. So while the GOP claims to be focusing on American safety, I call it “hypocrisy”.

Why, you may ask?

Just yesterday, the House GOP voted to roll back an Obama administration gun-control regulation that would help prevent mentally ill individuals from purchasing firearms. The rule is described below in a letter from the NACBHDD (National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors) to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi:

Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007.

This rule would require the Social Security Administration to forward the names of all Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit recipients who use a representative payee to help manage their benefits due to a mental impairment to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

By lifting this regulation, the GOP is making it easier for the mentally incapable to obtain firearms. This is putting firearms in the hands of more individuals such as Dylann Roof who shot and killed nine individuals at the Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina, and James Holmes who in 2012 shot and killed 12 people at a movie theater in Aurura, Colorado. If anything, shouldn’t we be creating new ways to try and keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill? After all, the GOP is banning refugees from countries that haven’t even produced a single terrorist who has victimized Americans on U.S. soil.

Is this not hypocrisy at it’s finest? To take care of a problem, you are supposed to target its “real” cause, not an imaginary cause that simply targets American feelings. Is the GOP really trying to “Make America Safe”, or are they simply trying to “Make America SEEM Safe”. It certainly seems like the latter.

The government is supposed to use their massive hoard of intelligence to come up with solid facts, evidence and a plan for action. These moves show that Donald Trump and, to an equally disappointing degree, the GOP House and Senate are acting based on myths and stereotypes rather than facts and evidence — simply to “Make America SEEM Safe”.