Witch Hunt
D. S. Mitchell
Donald Trump The Victim
Historically, “witch hunt” referred to the persecution of the weak and powerless by the powerful. Usually, when the term witch hunt is used, it is meant metaphorically, referring to a period in the past. Today the term has been turned on its head. Under Trumpism a belief has developed, a dark corrupt suggestion, of a ‘deep state’ persecution of him.
Narcissists thrive on enemies, and Trump is no exception. In fact Trump brings a new finesse to the age-old blame game. All those pre-election assertions of a ‘deep state’ have hardened since he became president. He believes, and vigorously promotes the idea that he is under siege from all quarters; the Mexicans, the Muslims, the immigrants, the Democrats. Trump merely points and everyone looks toward the new enemy. Then his red capped crowd of pitchfork carriers goes after his newly declared target. Believe me, there is no end to his enemies list, in fact, it is a growing thing.
Today, instead of calling out Trump and his extremist “witch hunters” for crimes against immigrants, Muslims, POC, women, and the press; the greatest perpetrator has become the greatest complainer. In this newly created world, Trump is the martyr. A contortionists’ twist on reality, but a “truth” that Trump hammers out daily on Twitter.
“Fake News” and “Witch Hunt”
Trump is certainly not the first politician facing multiple ethics and criminal investigations, protest marches, and secret tapes, to call newspaper reports “fake news;” or claim legal investigations against him are a “witch hunt”. Trump using Twitter has denounced the Mueller probe as “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” Hyperbole to be sure, but the suggestion that he is being unfairly subjected to unreasonable government probing strikes a chord with his base supporters. He’s just like them, a victim of titanic forces beyond their control.
The “witch hunters”, or the more acceptable term “witch finders” of medieval Europe and the Spanish Inquisition were “warriors for God.” They tortured tens of thousands of people, the mostly women, until they confessed to crimes involving Satan. The witch scare ultimately led to the execution of thousands of innocent people for imagined crimes. America had its own share witch hunts, most famously the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-1693.”
Red Scare
A frenzy of national righteousness was resurrected in the political sense by the post-war Red Scare. The House Un-American Activities Committee, began holding public hearings of suspected Communist infiltration of Hollywood and government agencies in the 1950’s. Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy grabbed the national spotlight in a vast 20th century “witch hunt”. Again, innocent people were arbitrarily accused of crimes. While providing nail-biting television viewing, lives and careers were ruined as McCarthy took his anti-communist crusade to the American public. McCarthy was eventually disgraced and it was the last time “witch hunt” would be used in any meaningful way, in a wide-spread political context.
No Victory Without An Enemy
President Trump has made near constant references as of late to “witch hunts”. He is manipulating and twisting the understanding of the term and turning a scary-sounding catch-phrase into a weapon against the prosecutors leading multiple criminal investigations against him. They are his necessary enemies, his public targets. Trump can’t be a victim of a “witch hunt” without a persecutor, without an identified enemy, and fortunately for Trump he has no lack of enemies. When Phil Spector the legendary music producer and convicted murderer, referred to his arresting officers as ‘Gestapo’; it wasn’t a reference to anything factual, but, rather an ‘alternative’ fact used by Specter to diminish the legitimacy of the charges against him.
“Muslim Scare”
Trump has integrated the most extreme examples of the followers of a religion to the religion itself, calling them “radical Muslim terrorists” over and over in defaming speeches. A conflation which as well as leading to a ‘travel ban’, has been the root motivation for multiple senseless and seemingly random attacks around the United States; many of the victims of such attacks were not even of the Muslim faith, but had been targeted because they ‘looked Arab’.
To restate, Islam is a religion. A set of ideas and doctrines written in books. The words do not change. There is no moderate or extremist or fundamentalist Islam. Muslims are the individual human beings who follow, to varying degrees, the Koran and the teachings of Mohammad, and are as susceptible to moderation, extremism or apathy as any other humans.
Politicians habitually complain loudly and often that the opposition is to blame for all the country’s problems. Trump has revved up the rhetoric with angry Twitter tirades and accusations. It is common in the political sphere for anger to quickly coalesce around a perceived or projected enemy, and “your” people will quickly join in the attack on anyone different from “us”. These are the ties that bind Donald Trump to his supporters, “You are either with me, or you are the enemy.” No in-between. With Trump you must be all-in.
