Donald Trump has never met me, but he has decided that I am the “enemy within” for thinking that facts matter, for thinking that journalism plays a role in democracy, for caring about people other than myself, and for thinking that people convicted of crime perhaps should pay some consequence.
Indeed, I am “sick,” he says, and may need to be prosecuted, blocked, de-licensed or otherwise have my voice and vote neutered. The same sentence seems to be applied broadly to my family and children, to my friends and neighbors, to anyone who watched Jan. 6,2021 unfold on television and found it to be a horror rather than a “day of love.” Indeed, apparently all you must think to become an enemy is that Trump lost the 2020 election, a provable fact.
In interviews this week Trump newly derided his political enemies as “Marxists, and communists, and fascists” — not explaining or distinguishing among the isms, adding that “the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.” He floated the idea of using the National Guard or military to quell said enemy after the election, though why local police, the FBI and the Justice Department can’t do the job is never explained
It’s not the first time that Trump has attacked me — or whoever he believes I am.
I’m a Jewish guy upset by the Oct. 7 attacks who doesn’t think starving two million Palestinians surviving the complete razing of Gaza and expanding reprisal attacks through the region while not freeing a hundred hostages still being held represents an effective, long-term strategy. Nor do I blindly follow the dictates of an increasingly right-wing government in Israel to continue bulldozing Palestinian homes in support of land-grabs in the West Bank, any more than I follow even U.S. government dictates blindly.
Maybe I have trouble seeing both why the disputes there should play out here in rising anti-Semitic acts, or why we insist on using “protections” against anti-Semitism to eliminate the right to raise questions about national policy and international peace. All I know is Trump thinks my ethnicity makes me out of my mind for not voting for him.
The Attack on Questions
He says I’m an enemy who believes that personal character should matter in choosing our leaders, who sees that Trump is being treated differently than the thousand brought to face accountability for Jan. 6, or who apparently believes, as he has said repeatedly, that men, if they are rich enough, can do no wrong in assaulting women.
As a career journalist, I fall into that special breed of enemies who believe that asking questions and checking on fact matters. Those who have done so– or the companies they work for — now face public threats of prosecution or licensure. The threats are not working, and the policy, business and practical questions that Trump stokes rise by the day.
I believe humans have changed the climate for the worse, and that the growing number of hurricanes, wildfires and storms with increasing ferocity have been delivering worse punch for the general warming changes. Is it that climate belief that makes me an enemy or the idea that spreading bad information that the federal emergency folks are controlling the weather to make the lives of Republicans miserable?
Is it really my inclination to align with those who support individual rights to decide on abortion and health decisions that qualifies me as an enemy, or perhaps the idea that I can question Trump’s self-assertions that despite moving to overturn abortion rights to allow states to set Draconian mandates, Trump still proclaims that he is “the father of IVF” and casts himself as a “protector” of women, who will save them from fear and loneliness so that they no longer have to think about abortion. Maybe I’m an enemy for seeing a gap among his various opinions and his actions.
Insults Galore
Those of us who listen to Trump likely have similar questions about how international tariffs will result in lower supermarket prices rather than global economic chaos, about how rounding up multiple millions of undocumented migrants will work in real life, about why striking hundreds of thousands of voters with Latino-sounding surnames regardless of their citizenship status squares with any state or federal law, about what good is coming from ignoring the spread of assault weapons.
Trump insults the members of military, insults auto workers, insults the disabled, insults those who try to collect on his debts. He undercuts those who worked with him, even threatening “execution” for the likes of Gen. Mark Milley, former Joint Chiefs leader.
Trump regularly insults anyone who talks about the advantages of diversity inclusion of any variety and especially for those promoting critical thinking.
Trump claims endorsements that never were offered and rally attendance at odds with the images from the events. His virtual Sharpie pen is active in rewriting the history and records of his own term in the White House and that of Joe Biden-Kamala Harris. If his record in office is as good as he continuously has claimed, he would not have need to exaggerate it so fiercely.
If all it takes to be added to Trump’s “enemies list” is a questioning mind, count me in. Keeping an enemies list is reason enough to vote for his rival.
