When the president speaks, the world listens.
After the racist Dylann Roof murdered nine church members in 2015 at a South Carolina church, President Barack Obama said that “to say our thoughts and prayers are with [the victims] and their families and their community doesn’t say enough to convey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel.” Although President George W. Bush was not known for his eloquence, he chose the moral high ground after 9/11, saying “America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country.”
Now, we have entered the age of Trump. President Donald J. Trump and his advisers and supporters present lies as truth, deniability as accountability, ignorance as knowledge, and fiction as fact. Trump does not exaggerate facts, embellish it or “say it like it is. Let’s not soft-pedal it: Trump is a liar, and he was elected on lies.
By late December 2017, The New York Times pointed out that Trump lied 103 times in his first 10 months in office, compared with 18 for Obama over eight years. Made aware of falsehoods, Obama and Bush stopped repeating them; Trump continues to lie. Lying is stock-in-trade of demagogues like Trump. Gov. Paul LePage is a demagogue. Historically, the worst American demagogue was Sen. Joseph McCarthy who lied, distorted and fabricated evidence about a Communist plot within the government.
George Orwell wrote in his 1949 novel “1984,” “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Orwell illustrated the nature of totalitarianism and demagoguery through the fictitious state of Oceania. It used “Newspeak” in a perversion of news by limiting it to government propaganda. It is a trademark of totalitarian states like North Korea, Russia and China to do the same.
By attacking the news media as “fake news,” Trump tries to discredit reports that do not favor his administration. Instead, he spouts in totalitarian style propaganda about voter fraud, the tax reform bill, and the influence of Russia on the 2016 election.
Trump’s demagoguery has been on full display at his rallies. In a February 2016 campaign rally, he called for violence, saying “I’d like to punch” a demonstrator “in the face.” During an event in Ohio earlier this month, he called members of Congress who did not applaud his State of the Union speech “ treasonous.” He has kept news reporters in a corral at the back of arenas and refers to the press as “very dishonest people,” smiling when the crowd bellows “CNN sucks.”
Making the news media a scapegoat for national problems is a favorite tactic of demagogues because it takes the focus off them when they feel attacked. Other Trump scapegoats include the FBI, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, immigrants and political opponents.
What needs to be done to fight a demagogue like Trump? Tell the truth. Counteract the fountain of lies.
He criticized Obama for playing golf too much. Trump played golf 87 times during his first year in office, compared with 28 for Obama.
Last year, Trump claimed his accountant told him he “would get killed” under the House tax cut bill. But an NBC News analysis of his 2005 tax return showed he would personally save more than $20 million.
His campaign talk is hollow. He said after the Pulse nightclub shooting that he would be the best friend to LGBT Americans. His Justice Department has reversed itself and says a federal anti-bias law doesn’t provide protection for transgender workers, and Trump has proposed blocking transgender people from serving in the military.
This huckster president will continue to be exposed in the months ahead. Being president is not an app, and policy cannot be taken seriously when tossed out in tweets. We need elected leaders to work for the good of the country and for the public good. The republic needs people who are not afraid to speak the truth.
Mac Herrling is a writer and photographer who lives in Bradley.
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