Prophecy, no,
not from Trump: from H.L. Mencken
(July
26, 1920 - boy did he nail it)
CINC Donald J. “Bone Spurs” Trump lectured a recent VFW audience about his tariffs and
impact on farmers, and warned them:
“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading
is not what’s happening. Farmers will be the biggest beneficiary of the implementation
of tariffs. Just watch. We’re opening up markets. You
watch what’s going to happen. Just be a little patient.”
To that point: Trump has imposed tariffs on $34 billion in
Chinese goods, inviting retaliatory tariffs from Beijing on imports of including
soybeans and pork. Trump has now further threatened to levy duties on another
$500 billion on Chinese products, a move that would likely result in stronger
actions by China.
To drive his point home that his critics were wrong and that
“trade wars are good and easy to win,”
Then Trump pinned the blame on a familiar
target, saying: “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake
news – the enemy of the people.”
Here is the history on the use of that phrase: “Enemy of the
People” from the Business Insider – it is reviewing
here in bullet format from the article (for easy reading) –
Note: The phrase “the
enemy of the people” has a long history that Trump may or may even know about
(which is probably a good guess):
Over the course
of the last century, that phrase has been used repeatedly by dictators and
autocrats to delegitimize foreign governments, opposition parties, and
dissenters.
· In Roman times and the reign of Emperor Nero, he himself was declared an
enemy of the people by the Roman Senate.
· In
modern times during the French Revolution – spoken in French: “Ennemi du people” (Enemy
of the People) was used extensively by the new French government during its “Reign
of Terror” wherein thousands of revolutionaries were executed by the guillotine.
· Its
next prominent use was by the Nazis during their Third Reich's rule in Germany.
For example, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels referred
to Jews as “a sworn enemy of the German people” who posed a risk to
Adolf Hitler and his vision for the country.
· It
gained its widest use by Joseph Stalin during the early years of the Soviet
Union under both Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin who used
the term “vrag naroda” (enemy of the nation/people transliteration
from Russian). It referred to those who disagreed with the ideologies pushed by
the Bolshevik government and then officially adopted by the newly-formed USSR.
Usage included anyone from the clergy who did not want to adopt state-enforced
atheism to writers to political opposition who questioned the ideologies of the
new government. It was later picked up by Stalin and under him such a
designation most likely meant immediate imprisonment or further removal to a Siberian
labor camp (Gulag in Russian).
· From
Lenin in November 1917: “All leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, a
party filled with enemies of the people, are hereby to be considered outlaws,
and are to be arrested immediately and brought before the revolutionary court.”
· The
phrase lost popularity in the 1950s when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev came
into power and denounced Lenin and Stalin's use of the term to refer to anyone
who disagreed with the leaders. He said: “The formula “enemy of the people” was
specifically introduced for the purpose of physically annihilating such
individuals” he said in a 1956
speech to the Soviet
Communist Party.
· In
recent years, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez called
political dissenters “enemies of the homeland.”
As we also
know, Richard Nixon had an “enemies list” which is close to the same concept.
Lastly, most
Republicans and now more so with Trump there is a viral hated for the media
(again, not counting FOX – Trump’s go-to news source starting early in the
morning when he first gets up and this the Twitter keys on his phone).
My 2 cents: Let me be clear the media IS NOT the enemy
of the people, well, maybe FOX is, but not the so-called mainstream media.
If there is any one single real the enemy of the
people, then I suggest it is Donald J. Trump and his constant, daily lying, exaggerating,
and well just blatant lies.
Need proof – here he is in his own words addressing that VFW crowed in Kansas City in his own words:
Open Mouth Insert
Foot Once Again: Not surprised
Thanks for stopping
by.
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