Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
I’ve been pondering why, during a year of great professional success for me, I am looking ahead to 2017 not with joy and optimism, but with a pessimism that weighs on my shoulders like a huge (HUUGE) boulder. This morning, I’ve put my finger on it in the guise of a tweet from President-Elect Donald
Trump:
Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don’t know what to do. Love!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2016
Of all the tweets and retweets Mr. Trump has posted at all hours of the day and night, why does this one stop me in my tracks? Why do I find this one tweet so very chilling only three weeks before he moves into the White House, becoming our (God help us) 45th President of the United States?
It is the use of the word “enemies” that has me struggling for breath. “My many enemies.” Whoa. And before you say, “well, we do have enemies here in the U.S.,” I want to point out the use of the first person, “my.” “My many enemies.” Let that sink in for a moment. When was the last time you ever heard a president refer an unknown number of the people he serves as “enemy.” Who does he mean? And what does he plan to do about them?
Is he talking about political enemies: Democrats? Liberals? The Clintons? Chuck Schumer? Bernie Sanders? Elizabeth Warren? These are not enemies; they are the opposition, crucial to any democracy or republic.
People of Color? Muslims? Undocumented Immigrants? Why? Because they voted for his opponent in huuge numbers?
The press? Saturday Night Live? Bill Maher? Stephen Colbert? Because (ineffective as it sometimes has been this past year) the media have begun to call Trump’s lies what they are…lies? Because comics satirize, and have been much more effective in calling Trump out for what he is?
All Americans should be chilled and a bit terrified of any president-elect (or president) calling anyone enemies. I would like to know just to whom Mr. Trump refers in his latest tweet. Whom does he consider enemies? And how further would need to travel to conflate them from his “enemies” to “enemies of the State.”
We are about to begin a new year, swear in a new POTUS. Like I said, for me, this has been a professionally rewarding year, including the publication by a great publishing house of my second book (and my first novel), The Apothecary’s Curse. But as half the country holds its collective breath, we must wonder how many of us are on Mr. Trump’s enemies list for 2017.
I’ll be offering my opinions of Trump Tweets all during 2017. You can follow me on Twitter @B_Barnett and visit my official page for news and information about The Apothecary’s Curse and other publishing projects.
