By Arnold Dodge
The tweeter-in-chief, predictably, is at it again. Even after his Electoral College victory, his Twitter feed continues, his followers hungry for more. Making both domestic and foreign policy tweets in reaction to any and all criticism, he has captured the imagination of junior high school children everywhere. They, too, can someday be president if all it takes is a sentence fragment and a nasty tone.
As we await the Inauguration Day ritual, let’s imagine Trump—at that point able to communicate in tweet-style only—taking the oath of office:
@RealDonaldTrump I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preser-
That’s all he could tweet, folks. 140 characters is not a fake news barrier. It’s a real limitation, even for the President-elect. Tweeting? Good or bad? Actually, neither. You can’t blame the medium, it’s the message. Or more importantly, the messenger.
Trump’s twitter lexicon is already filled with assaults on individuals and take-downs of institutions. At times juvenile, at other times vicious, these bursts of phlegm—often crafted at 3 a.m.—are laced with racism, misogyny, xenophobia and threats to democracy. He has insulted scores of journalists, dozens of media outlets, politicians, women, union leaders, union members, the U.S. government, the CIA, immigrants, Mexicans, federal judges and celebrities. And the list goes on.
But we don’t have to take it lying down. Here’s a torrent of tweets—on Trump’s favorite topics—that we should have at the ready at 4 a.m. All it takes is vigilance on our part—and a working Twitter account—to tweet truth to power:
On authority:
@EugeneVDebs In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both, to deceive and overawe the People.
@SamuelAdams How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!
@AynRand Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind
On women:
@MahatmaGandhi Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as his abuse of the better half of humanity; the female sex
@LucreticaMott The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of women the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source
@AbhijitNaskar “Man is the master of Woman” — this statement may have been a glorious fact of primitive life in the wild, but it is nothing but an obnoxious stain on the psyche of the thinking humanity
On race:
@RosaParks Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and hopefully, we shall overcome
@PierreBerton Racism is a refuge for the ignorant. It seeks to divide and destroy. It is the enemy of freedom, and deserves to be met head-on and stamped out
@E.B.White Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
On the “other”:
@StephenVincentBenet Remember that when you say ‘I will have none of this exile and this stranger for his face is not like my face and his speech is strange,’ you have denied America with that word
@BertrandRussell Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd
@EmmaLazarus (given a pass on the 140-character limit, because Statue of Liberty.)
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
But the wisdom of poets and philosophers, people certainly tagged by Trump as “low energy,” may not be able to withstand the next wave of madness.
After launching salvos against those on his very own enemies’ list, Trump has now dumped his tweets in the global arena. Confusing, contradictory and ill-informed, his texts now confound nations.
After taking a phone call from Taiwan’s president, Trump tweeted:
The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
The press jumped on the story, bewildered that the president-elect would violate a 40-year ban on official conversations with Taiwanese leaders. Wouldn’t this jeopardize the one-China policy, a compact that holds together the tense relationship between two global giants?
His surrogates—including the vice-president elect—quickly parried. They scolded the media for their over-reaction. It was just a damn congratulations call!
On cue, the boss unleashed a couple of beauties:
Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2016
Did China ask us if it was OK to devalue their currency (making it hard for our companies to compete), heavily tax our products going into..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
their country (the U.S. doesn’t tax them) or to build a massive military complex in the middle of the South China Sea? I don’t think so!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 4, 2016
Watch out, world. There’s a new sheriff in town. And he’s a man of few words.
Trump’s abject ignorance of geo-politics and his impulsive middle-of-the-night messaging (fancying himself a global, pre-dawn tribune) portends a dangerous, maybe catastrophic, spasm in the bowels of an already tense and scary world.
What’s next? It could be this:
@realDonaldTrump So sorry about the nuclear air strike CNN. Wolf Blitzer – aka lyin’ Wolf – says 10,000 lives lost. No more than 5,000 for sure! All those interviews with survivors. Bunch of crybabies.
Improbable? Yes.
Ruled out completely? No.
We should have seen this coming. Here’s a 2013 tweet from our President-elect:
Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure,it’s not your fault
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2013
The Party of Lincoln may never recover.
(Featured photo credit: Michael Vadon/flickr)
Arnold Dodge, PhD, is an associate professor of education at the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University, where he serves as the chairperson of the Department of Educational Leadership and Administration. Dr. Dodge is a former teacher, principal and superintendent. In his 45th year in education, he is particularly focused on the effects of high-stakes testing on schools.
