Ever since Donald Trump took office in January, 2017, he and the Republican Party have been enacting lots of change throughout America, most of it for the worse.
On the campaign trail, Trump used provocative, nationalist, and anti-immigrant rhetoric to rile up his supporters. He garnered the support of the American far-right, including the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, and the Alt-Right. KKK Grand Wizard David Duke endorsed Trump for president, as did Aryan Nations leader and convicted child molester August Kreis.
And, since Trump has been elected, hate groups across the United States have seen a massive resurgence, as have incidents of hate-motivated violence.
Furthermore, Donald Trump has appointed Betsy Devos, an ultra-wealthy advocate for charter schools, to head the Department of Education. As Education Secretary, Devos has attempted to cut funding to child special education programs in order to divert government funds to finance elite private schools, and under her direction the Department of Education has declined to enforce numerous anti-discrimination laws enacted under the Obama administration.
But it's not just the social policies that Trump is changing. It is also the environment.
While the United States was once on track to leading the way in saving the environment and shifting to renewable energy, the EPA was, for a long period, controlled by Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier and lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry. Even though Pruitt has since left the department, his replacement, Andrew Wheeler, also denies climate change and has not only rolled back EPA regulations on carbon emissions but has even cut regulations for asbestos and lead.
So, with all of this in mind, I think that the time has come for the Republican Party to change its logo. The elephant no longer represents the values of today's Republicans, so I have proposed a new symbol:
This is tetraethyllead, and I think it represents exactly what today's Republican Party stands for.
Tetraethyllead is an organolead compound once used as a fuel additive in gasoline. It is a volatile, reactive, colorless liquid with a sickly sweet odor. It is also extremely toxic, with as little as 6mL being enough to induce severe lead poisoning.
Tetraethyllead's chemical structure resembles a swastika, perfectly appropriate for a party that has, at best, ignored the rise of fundamentalism, intolerance, bigotry, and racism, and, at worst, has openly supported it.
Tetraethyllead is also extremely dangerous for the environment, and causes long-lasting damage to aquatic and marine life. Much like the Republican Party's policies on climate change, the environmental damage that tetraethyllead can cause is catastrophic and lasts for years.
Tetraethyllead is also extremely dangerous to a child's developing brain, and it causes a noticeable loss in IQ in those exposed to it. This is not unlike the Republican Party's policies on education, where our education system is now run by charter school advocates who cut funding to special needs programs, and our schools are under attack from religious fundamentalists attempting to expunge science from the classroom and replace it with creationism and climate change denial.
But the most striking similarity between tetraethyllead and the Republican Party is the stubborness associated with it. The rest of the developed world abandoned the use of leaded gasoline long before the United States did. They knew it was poisonous, and the scientific consensus on it was clear.
But the United States refused to get rid of tetraethyllead and, for decades, continued using the toxic chemical in gasoline until 1996, when, after immense pressure, it was finally phased out. Once tetraethyllead was phased out, there was a drop in the nation's crime rates and a collective rise in IQ.
But this came only after the stubbornness of the lead industry was challenged in both the courts and on the streets. And now, the Republican Party is making the same mistake with climate change. They are refusing to accept the scientific consensus that climate change is not only real but is man-made.
Recent studies suggest that, if carbon emissions continue climbing at their current rate, the environment may be irreparably damaged by 2030. And if the Republican Party will not pay attention to the imminent danger posed by climate change, then the responsibility falls to us.
So I urge everyone reading this to take action, and the best way to do that is to VOTE! There is no knight in shining armor coming to save us. There is no divine plan that will keep us safe. The climate is in danger and it is up to us to drag the rest of the country kicking and screaming into the modern world before it is too late.
We need the same fervor, the same unity that we had against the tetraethyllead industry in the 1990s and we need to focus it on climate change. Through activisim and through voting, we can change this world for the better.
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