Trump, Making Enemies Within

TRUMP, during his rambling, often incoherent speech to America's inconveniently assembled generals, referred to what he called "the enemy within". He did not, however, precisely define the term. We may assume, however. that he was referring to any and all Americans who oppose him and his policies. In other words, a majority of the American people. When one reflects that a clear majority of the American people oppose Trump, the apparent fact that Trump seeks to silence or eliminate all opposition, a seemingly dauntig task, takes on ever more alarming, desperate overtones. People who hate Trump are inclined to make comparisons between Trump and Hitler, not without a certain degree of justification, base in facts. One major difference between the two, however, is that Hitler was much more popular than Trump, Although Hitler's political party was elected with only a small plurality of German votes, Hitler himself, by the time he had been in power only a short time, had experienced a surge in national popularity, perhaps due in part to the excessive emphasis on patriotism with which his propaganda minister and government inundated and saturated the German people. The entire time Trump has been active in politics, his approval rating has been far below fifty percent, and he has gotten only a little above forty percent of the vote. Otherwise, there are far more similarities than differences between the two. Both Hitler and Trump created foreign enemies for the purpose of unifying the German people, and they both invented internal, domestic enemies to strengthen the support of their loyal supporters. Hitler was so popular and authoritatian that few who oppsosed him dared to speak out, thus forcing der fuhrer to fabricate an invented, contrived internal enemy, "Jews". As they say, whatever works. Trump cuts right to the chase by designating all who oppose him as "enemies of the people",failing to mention, wisely, that the enemies of the people significantly outnumber "the people",aka, MAGA folk, Trump supporters. "The radical left", is Trump's term for "the enemy within", and whereas it is indeed true that most Trump opponents are progressives, there are a certain percentage of conservatives, small in number though they may be, who do not support Trump. Trump, it seems, is insufficiently conservative for many true right wing extremists, and simply much too immoral for a certain segment of the evangelical community, those who practice what they preach. Again, the problem with Trump' enemies list is that it is just way too long. He doesn't have it narrowed down enough. By defning most Americans as his enemies, he creates the very enormous army of angry, motivated citizens it takes to defeat him. Trump can send as many national guardsmen into as many American cities as he likes, but he will simply not be able to arrest his way or deport his way out of the problem he has; of standing in direct opposition to a majority of the American peole. The more good, harmless, innocent American citizens Trump harasses with his military Gestapo, the lower his approval numbers go. Trump's enemies are not the enemies of the people. Trump's enemies are the people, a majority thereof. Like all fascist authoritrians, Trump tries to equate his personal opponents and enemies as enemies of the people, or of the country. The exact opposite is of course true: those who oppose Trump are the true patriotic Americans, at least as patriotic as Trump supporters, but far less misguided.