Last
Sunday the twitter world woke up to a new tweet from our President. In this
round of his twitter-wars he took on CNN. In an altered video clip he beats up
a person whose head has been covered by a CNN type logo. As with most modern
world leaders, President Trump utilizes Twitter to communicate directly with
the public. While other leaders use Twitter to put out positive messages of
congratulations or the occasional note of sympathy for sufferers, President
Trump uses his posts to engage in very public conflict; primarily with news
organizations and individuals that have the temerity to criticize him or some
aspect of his policy. Instead of appearing as a powerful leader President Trump
comes across as mean-spirited, vindictive, and petty. He displays a crude,
sophomoric type of humor common to bullies of all ages. He uses Twitter to
attack his enemies. The problem with all this is; he incorrectly identifies his
enemies.
Based
on his public pronouncements, President Trump believes news organizations are
his primary enemies. He chafes under their criticism. He has yet to learn that
as president public criticism will be his constant companion; no matter what he
does or says. Action or inaction it does not matter, someone will compose an article taking him to task. Every president since George Washington endured
public attacks, some brutal and unwarranted, some earned. Those presidents who
develop a thick skin and ignore most of them, only responding when absolutely
necessary, fare well. Those who remain easily offended incur repeated assaults.
President Trump has chosen to respond almost daily to perceived insults or
slights issued by mainstream media. He speaks of them contemptuously, engaging
in frequent vitriolic broadsides. In his opinion the press is the enemy. In this he
is very mistaken. The press is not the enemy. Do not misunderstand me,
President Trump, indeed all American citizens, faces enemies. There are forces
arrayed against us that daily work to secure our destruction. They are legion.
Ignorance
is President Trump’s enemy; indeed our enemy. Ignorance crouches behind every
bush and in the shadows seeking to drag us down. Ignorance shackles us to
nonexistent fears. It deludes us into believing in a Technicolor celluloid
past; one where we lived in our own places enjoying a fictitious unity. Ignorance
denies reality, decrying a need for action or urging an overreaction to some
ill-defined threat. Ignorance convinces us that a bogeyman lurks just around
the corner, causing us to miss the real threat standing next to us. But ignorance
is not the only enemy we face.
Prejudice
actively seeks to undermine our republic. Ever since the directors of the Dutch
East India Company instructed Peter Stuyvesant to cease discriminating against
Jews, Muslims, and immigrants of other nationalities and religions we’ve
embraced the concept of freedom and toleration in our country.1 This
does not mean that we do not struggle with this concept. Indeed, we fought a
war that almost destroyed our nation over this issue, the Civil War. But
prejudice will destroy us since it leads us to judge unfairly, to categorize, and
to discriminate. Prejudice is a tenacious enemy that every generation must
fight anew. Still there are other enemies out there.
Greed
and its extreme sibling avarice the twins that generate in the human heart a grasping
churlishness toward or fellow man will destroy us. Greed leads us to amass
fortunes at the expense of our neighbor. Monetary success is not an evil unto
itself. Yet, when we allow monetary success to consume us, causing us to look
askance at our fellow citizens in need denying them assistance, our
Poverty
shackles over forty-three million of our fellow citizen, some 13.5%, in grim
circumstances. 2 Our government defines poverty as two adults and
two children living on a combined income of $ 24,339.3 Poverty
carves a chasm between those of us who have and those of us who have not. For
many this chasm, carved largely by our own intransigence, remains a fixed and impassable
barrier. They may gaze across and dream; but, no bridge exists and those of us
on the far side, living in relative luxury, do precious little to help them
escape their pitiable lot. Ultimately poverty will destroy our republic and
Western-Civilization from within. Those living under the grinding heel of
poverty face a future filled with pain, suffering, and uncertainty. Often they
stagger from one chaotic situation to the next, barely able to keep body and
soul together. And while it is true that some live in poverty due to poor
personal choices, that fact does not relieve us of the responsibility to reach
out and help, through as many means as possible, our fellow man. In its preamble
our own Constitution lays this burden on us, “…promote the general Welfare, and
secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,…”4 To
deny this responsibility, is to be dishonest with ourselves and our fellow
citizens. But, there is yet one more enemy I’d like to point out, dishonesty.
Dishonesty,
in all its forms, eats away at the core of our nation. Falsehood erodes trust.
Prevarication destroys our ability to work with each other. Those who dissemble
only seek to avoid a painful truth. In some cases truth hurts; usually our
pride. I hate to admit to my students when I’ve made a mistake. But, in order
to set a good example, to be worthy of claiming the profession of teacher, I
must own up to my mistakes, willingly admit them, and then take corrective
action.
If
President Trump ever wants to rise above reality TV star, demagogue status, and
assume the mantle of world leader, he must battle our true enemies, ignorance, prejudice, greed, poverty, and dishonesty. He must
discard his penchant for using bully tactics against his detractors. Those
tactics will never succeed. He has no true lever to move them. They will remain after he is out of office.
As
always, please leave a comment, like, or share. Any feedback will help me
improve as a writer and as a thinker.
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