Trump has, in the finest traditions of dictators before him, repeatedly labeled the free press as the "enemy of the people". Trump's hatred of the free press is reminiscent of dictators everywhere. All dictators begin by attacking and suppressing the free press. Trump has done both. Frankly, I never thought I would hear those words from an American president. But I have, and I have heard them repeated by that president. Where do we go from here? Every American should find this deeply disturbing. Dictators need enemies. They need and thrive on fear, hate, and misinformation. We should be deeply concerned. http://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-president-trumps-phrase-an-enemy-of-the-people-2017-2
They should, but they don't. I think that Trump supporters (voters) agree with him. Well, except for Fox news. Shameful, really.
I strongly agree. Funnily enough, over here recently we had a newspaper calling our judges "enemies of the people", and our new Justice minister never said a word in their defence! But it is a chilling phrase, whoever uses it, with a hint of the menace of mob rule behind it. I hope and pray that this will galvanise the press in the US to dig into everything about this new administration. There seem to be signs already that this is what is happening. And I am sure there will be no shortage of sacked or disgruntled employees of the state who will be willing to help the journalists.
Behind the noise and threat to the regular folks (not that it's trivial, but in addition), there's the Republican corporate factor - the media in the US is becoming a plutocrat-governed business. The consolidation of this corporate control will require cooperation from the US government, against the interests of the citizenry overall. We have the AT&T/Time Warner merger immediately in front of us - it's not the only such issue coming down over the next few years.
From a head of state declaring someone "enemy of the people" , to persecution, to silencing legally, to imprisonment and death sentence are but small steps. (Ibsen covered it nicely. ) Incidentally, by clear implication, that same head of state also declares himself the only legitimate voice for all the people, opening the stairs to an official state organ (Ministry of Information) and making dissent or complaint of any kind punishable. Of course, as far as political protest, the US had that last step nailed down decades ago. (1984 was too pessimistic an estimate - but not by much.)
I'm beginning to wonder if Trump is going to do exactly what he said: he's going to "drain the swamp". He's going to change so many things that it will shake up all of Washington for decades, and when it gets rebuilt, it may never be the same. And I'm beginning to wonder of he's in a sense, martyring himself. Not in the 'oh poor me' sense, but in the 'I'm doing the dirty work no one has the guts to do' and then his term will pass. I begin to wonder if he doesn't want power; if he wants lasting change. I think I'm gonna get my head checked.
