Trump vs.Durkheim

Through a Durkheimian view we can look at Donald Trump and we can see him, and his opinions as functionalistic. In this case we have to take into account the whole Presidential campaign as well, in order to completely understand this viewpoint. Why is Trump a functionalist in this sense? In his race against Hillary Clinton he has been very functionalistic in the way that he has not done, or said, a single thing if it was not for the benefit of his position in the election. It is a very calculated move, and it is a move that, most likely, has helped him gain a lot of followers. In these modern times when there are so many people that are afraid of the “unknown” and the “foreign” it is a very good tactic for a person trying to get power, to play into those fears. Trump has done this in several ways, among them, his twitter account has accounted for some of the most outrageous outbursts. An example of what he has written is: “Crooked Hillary wants a radical 500% increase in Syrian refugees. We can´t allow this. Time to get smart and protect America!”(Trump, 2016). He has also published a statement, which calls for a “complete shutdown” of Muslims coming in to the United States (Trump, 2015). It is statements like these that may result in an uproar, where people are torn and divided when it comes to dealing with big issues in society. Especially when it comes to issues concerning an entire group of people. As mentioned in the theoretical part about Durkheim: “Without a society to give them birth and shape them, he claimed, none of these things could exist” (Pals,2006, p.85). Here Durkheim was talking about things like morals, science, politics and of course; religion. If there aren´t anyone to give these elements life, be it good or bad, there would not be anything of the sort. Religion can be portrayed in several different ways, and it has played many different roles in different societies around the world. However, in the U.S. today there is, unfortunately, a view of religion, especially of Islam, that is very negative and biased.