I think I’m starting to get what Ivanka means by ‘Make America Great Again’

I think I’m starting to get what Ivanka means by ‘Make America Great Again’ July 22, 2016

By Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA (20160208-DSC08139) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
By Marc Nozell from Merrimack, New Hampshire, USA (20160208-DSC08139) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
After listening to Ivanka speak at the Republican National Convention last night, I finally understand in much more concrete ideological terms what ‘Make America Great Again’ means. Perhaps I have failed to pay attention to her rhetoric earlier. What she said tonight, after all, doesn’t sound much newer than what she used to say on The Apprentice. Maybe it is I, then, who have heard it with fresh ears.

It could be that I unconsciously sat up when she addressed herself to her ‘fellow millennials,’ of which I could count myself a part. For Ivanka, to be a millennial is to be part of a generation that does not consider ourselves ‘categorically Republican or Democrat’; instead, we ‘vote on based on what I believe is right, for my family and for my country.’ I am not sure, of course, that this entirely captures how I feel about being part of the millennial generation, but what I do know is that I understand what she imagines America to be and what America is becoming much better after watching her speech, and perhaps it is because she spoke to me as a millennial.


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