So it’s been a month since “The Donald” took over the reigns of power here in the U.S. To me, the most frightening aspect about this situation is that it’s clear now that Trump never fully understood there are limits to his power as president. The other two branches, and even the First Amendment-loving free press we rely on so much, offer a much needed (especially now) set of checks and balances on his power and authority, so it doesn’t become absolute.
With the GOP in firm control of both houses of Congress, all that “We the People” can hope for is that the courts do their job and the press does theirs.
One of the first things dictators do to squash any resistance is to eliminate the free press. China’s dictator, Mao Zedong, who created the Great Famine that killed an estimated 36 million Chinese, famously embraced the concept of calling anyone critical of his policies “enemies of the people.” Sound familiar?
Emperor Trump recently tweeted: “THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!”
It’s now become common for our president to react this way whenever a reputable news outlet quotes him or his staff or reports on what’s actually going on. Especially if it’s unflattering.
What Trump is doing is really dangerous and it needs to be called out as dictatorial behavior. Even Republican John McCain said: “Dictators get started by suppressing the free press. I’m very serious now – if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free, and many times, adversarial press. Without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That’s how dictators get started.”
Oddly enough, McCain and fellow GOPer Lindsey Graham are some of Trump’s fiercest critics. Go figure. The most Orwellian thing I’ve heard (so far) was when Kellyanne Conway told Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” when discussing the inauguration crowd size dispute, “we have alternative facts.”
Really?
Bill Vana
Durango
