3 Reasons Why It's Bad Trump Tweets--But Don't Look Away!

Make no mistake about it -- the revolution will be tweeted.

There were many things that distinguished this year's presidential election. It was longer than elections past, and uglier. It's looking more and more obvious to more and more people that Russian hackers interfered to sway the outcome in favor of Trump. 

But the thing that perhaps most distinguished the 2016 presidential race was the role of social media: Facebook, and, to a slightly lesser extent, Twitter. Social media sites are modern-day salons. They are places where partisans of all stripes go to meet like-minded individuals and have their viewpoints vindicated. And, to an ever-increasing degree, they are places where regular Americans get their news (or fake news, as the case may be).  

Donald Trump was the first American presidential candidate to fully embrace the use of social media in his campaign. For Trump, a through-and-through Twitter man, that meant weaponizing his Twitter account in service of his campaign. Unlike many celebrities of his caliber, Trump has (with few and brief exceptions) always run his own Twitter account. And again, unlike many celebrities of his caliber, Trump has never been above using his Twitter account to malign or complain about the people he doesn't like. And, of course, the election didn't change any of that. 

Only his targets changed.

No one really knew how to treat this sort of a presidential campaign. Not journalists, not the other candidates, and certainly not the American people. This sort of behavior is not part of the traditional political script. But it made an amazing spectacle, so no one could look away. We all just stared--some of us in horror, some of us in glee--as Donald Trump barreled through all of his competition in the primary. When the primary was over, we all breathed a momentary sigh of relief, because surely Trump would change direction during the general election part of the campaign. Surely, now that the partisan circus of the primary season was over, he would start acting more presidential.

But he didn't. And then he won the general election, too.

At that point, many of us were hoping he would announce that is was all a joke. We assumed Trump would tweet that he just wanted to prove that he could win the presidency, and that he would go back to Celebrity Apprentice and resume his regular life. Others waited with bated breath for him to change, to abdicate his Twitter account and start acting more presidential.

Trump hasn't done any of those things. And his Twitter account hasn't changed a bit.

In our last discussion, 3 Reasons We Need to Hold Onto the First Amendment For Dear Effing Life, it was said that we were taking the content of all of the President-Elect's tweets seriously as they were written. For today's argument, we are looking at those tweets themselves. Here, we examine why it is so very awful and scary that our next American president communicates the way he does. 

3 Reasons Why It's BAD that Trump Tweets (But Don't Look Away!)

• The President-Elect weaponizes his Twitter account against particular companies and individual Americans

So far since winning the election, Trump has aimed the full force of his Twitter account against three American companies (not including media outlets, as that is a topic covered in a different post) and a slew of individuals, including the entire cast of the Tony-winning Broadway musical Hamilton. 

Here is a list of the companies and individuals attacked by President-Elect Trump through his Twitter account:

Companies
Rexnord (Trump says they are moving to Mexico)

Boeing (Trump derided the price tag of the new Air Force One they're building)

Lockheed-Martin (Trump complained about the price tag of the F-35 program)  

Individuals
Cast of Hamilton (Trump demanded they apologize for addressing Vice-President Elect Pence after a show)

Alec Baldwin (Trump belittled his impressions of him on Saturday Night Live)

Former presidential candidate Jill Stein (Trump called her a scam artist for calling for a recount of several key states)

Leader of Local Steelworkers 1999 Chuck Jones (The union rep publically--and rightfully--accused Trump of lying about the terms of his Carrier deal)

And here are the President-Elect's actual tweets:

• The President-Elect's public whining about the election reveals him to be thin-skinned 

Every time Donald Trump complains on Twitter about the recount in Michigan, or reiterates what he sees as his "landslide" Electoral College win, or calls Jill Stein a scam artist, or claims he would have won the popular vote, too, had it not been for all of the imagined voter fraud, he makes himself look like an ass to Americans and a weak, easily-manipulated despot to foreign powers.

Which might actually be exactly why Russia worked so hard to install him in the White House.

• The President-Elect's Twitter feed serves as a constant, horrifying spectacle to distract and confuse the populace

Do a Google search for "Evidence that Trump's tweets are a distraction" and you will get just as many hits for news articles that claim they are not mere distractions and need to be taken seriously as you will articles that warn against spending too much time staring at them.

I contend they are both.

Yes, the President-Elect tweets spontaneous, angry tirades when an SNL skit offends him. But also, yes, the President-Elect tweets crafty, well-thought-out messages designed to distract the American public from the fact that, for example, he appointed the racist, misogynist, anti-Semitic head of Breitbart to be his chief White House strategist. Or that he appointed the CEO of Exxon-Mobile to be his Secretary of State. 

This is why we Americans now have the seemingly impossible task of watching the Donald's tweets AND watching the Donald's deeds. It's too big a job to handle alone. This MUST be a group effort. Talk to your friends. Talk to your neighbors. Talk to your family. Form resistance groups. Resistance is patriotic!

We have a long, hard, road ahead of us and we will tire. Nurture each other. Remind each other about the end goal: taking our country back. 

The revolution will be tweeted!

Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl 

3 Reasons We Need to Hold Onto the First Amendment For Dear Effing Life

How does that Lee Greenwood song go? That's right:

'Cause I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I'll gladly thank the men who died to give that right to me. And I'll proudly stand up next to you to defend her still, today. 'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land. God bless the USA!

Us Americans love that we're free. We talk about it all the time. But how often do we think critically about the constitutional framework that supports our freedom? Not often enough. That better change, though, because if President-Elect Trump's twitter feed is any indication, those constitutional supports won't be there for long after he takes the oath of office. 

Today we're going to talk about why we need to hold onto our beloved First Amendment rights for dear life. Our discussion assumes that we are taking Trump's tweets seriously as they were written. This will not be a discussion of whether it is reasonable to take the President-Elect's tweets seriously, or a forum in which we mull over all of the myriad reasons why Trump tweets the way he does (Stephen Colbert of the Late Show offered an interesting explanation, however). Those are both deserving debates and they are ones we will have another day.

3 Reasons We Need to Protect the First Amendment with Our Every Breath

• The President-Elect Wants to Strip Citizenship from Dissidents

I can not believe that I actually had to type that last sentence. Everything about it feels surreal, and yet here we are. Last week (on November 29), out of the blue, President-Elect Donald Trump tweeted that those who burn the American flag ought to have their citizenship revoked, or at least spend a year in jail. And when I say "out of the blue" I mean out of the blue. Although the constitutionality of flag burning does pop up every now and again, it's been awhile since this discussion has been on the national radar. There haven't been any flag burnings in the news. It would seem that Trump woke up that morning, shrugged his shoulders, and thought to himself: "What the hell, I'll tweet about flag burning." 

In fact, as the picture above reveals, the flag-burning tweet came sandwiched in between a tweet denigrating CNN (a constitutionally problematic tweet in its own right) and a tweet offering condolences to the victims of Gatlinburg, Tennessee's recent wildfire.

In other words: out. Of. The. Blue.

I'm not going to waste your time or insult your intelligence with a long, passionate speech about why the President-Elect shouldn't speak out against constitutionally-protected free speech and constitutionally-protected political dissent. We are starting with the assumption that we can all agree on those things. What I am focusing on here is the fact that the President-Elect is suggesting that American citizens should be stripped of citizenship for political dissent.

In America, we have birthright citizenship. (For a primer of what that means, click here.) If you are born here you are a citizen, and that can never be taken away from you. It is one of the many things that distinguishes Americans, and it is one of the many things of which we can be proud.

And President-Elect Donald Trump, weeks before assuming office, made a public statement in which he threatened to take that away from us. If you're not terrified, you're not paying attention.

• The President-Elect is waging a constant war against the free press

Since Donald Trump was certified as the President-Elect, late on the night of November 8, he has tweeted 121 total tweets (as of 8:18 pm Central Standard Time 12/06). I have poured through all of them (you're welcome) and separated them into four troublesome categories, along with a category of "other." The four troublesome categories are: anti-media, anti-first-amendment otherwise, whining about the election, and self-congratulatory.

Here is how Trump's 121 tweets divide up:

Anti-media: 21 tweets, or 17%
Anti-First-Amendment Otherwise: 5 tweets, or 4%
Whining about the election: 21 tweets, or 17%
Self-Congratulatory: 10 tweets, or 8%

That leaves 64 tweets, or 52% as "other." But don't let that fool you. These tweets aren't wholly benign. All of Trump's antagonizing tweets about China fall into this category, for example, as do all of his tweets about Carrier (and the other businesses he's calling out by name, like Boeing).

What I want to highlight in this section, however, is the anti-media category, which currently comprises a full 17% of the President-Elect's tweets. Below are a few gems from this category.

ANTI-CNN

ANTI-ALL MEDIA

ANTI-NY TIMES

(These tweets deserve some special attention. It needs to be noted that the Times only found out that Trump cancelled the meeting through this very tweet. He never called them. Then, when the meeting finally took place, he spent most of it railing at the journalists for what he deemed unfavorable coverage. Reminder, this is the PRESIDENT-ELECT.)

ANTI-ALL MEDIA

• The President-Elect's Family is Calling for FBI Investigations of Political Dissidents

Jared Kushner is Trump's son-in-law, and he is also owner/publisher of the New York Observer. On Friday last the paper published an op-ed titled "Comey's FBI Needs to Investigate Violent Democratic Tantrums." Read the full text here. This is how the article begins:

It’s time for the FBI to conduct a detailed investigation into the violence and political thuggery that continue to mar the presidential election’s aftermath. A thorough probe of the protests—to include possible ties to organizations demanding vote recounts—will give the Bureau’s integrity-challenged director, James Comey, a chance to sandblast his sullied badge.

Director Comey must also include “elector intimidation” on his post-election investigation list. Reports that members of the Electoral College are being harassed and threatened by angry, vicious (and likely Democratic Party) malcontents require Comey’s quick and systematic attention.

In other words, the author is calling for the FBI to embark on an all-out investigation of citizens who are expressing their constitutionally-protected right of free speech.

Think on that for awhile, friends.
Until next time, my fellow Americans!

The revolution will be tweeted! Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl 

3 Reasons Why Trump's Carrier Deal Should Alarm You

Unless you've been hiding under your bed since Election Day without your phone or any other access to the news or social media, you've undoubtedly heard about President-Elect Trump's recent deal with the Indiana-based air conditioner company Carrier. (Read this if you need a primer on the situation first.)

On Thanksgiving Day Trump tweeted (see picture below): "I am working hard, even on Thanksgiving, trying to get Carrier A.C. Company to stay in the U.S. (Indiana). MAKING PROGRESS -- Will know soon!"

I don't know what you first thought when you read that tweet. My first thought was: "Huh?" And my second thought was: "How much Carrier stock does Trump have?" And then I might have (probably) called him an unflattering name. 

The thing is, though, Trump's hands-on intervention in Carrier's labor strategy is a really, really bad thing. And now we will take a look at 3 reasons why that is. Our argument will be illustrated with some more of the President-Elect's tweets.

3 Reasons to be Alarmed by Trump's Carrier Deal

• It's not the President's job to negotiate with individual businesses. 

This might actually be the most minor problem with the whole Carrier shenanigans, but it bears mentioning. I don't think there are actual legal prohibitions on the President engaging in such negotiations with individual businesses, but it really just doesn't make sense for him to do so. Not only would it be incredibly time-consuming and tedious to sit down with every company that is thinking of moving overseas one by one and hammering out deals to get them to stay, but the President has more important things to do. That is why, historically, negotiating with businesses has been left to state and local governments. As the heads of their respective economies, mayors and governors are best positioned to do the street-level deal making required in such situations.

The stakes in deals like these are high, frequently involving millions of dollars in tax incentives and potentially thousands of jobs saved or lost. Once the President gets involved, those stakes get even higher, and that leads to the second reason we should all be scared:

• Crony capitalism

We have to ask ourselves why President-Elect Trump made Carrier's labor issues his own personal business. One answer, that we will get into in point three, is most certainly "a craven grab for accolades", but another is definitely crony capitalism. (If even Sarah Palin is saying so it must be true.) 

How much Carrier stock does Trump own? Maybe none, but according to this WSJ article, in 2014 he owned up to $250,000 worth of their parent company. Did that factor into his decision to cut Carrier a deal? Of course it did. 

And what did he mean when he tweeted "They will sell many air conditioners!"? Is Trump going to buy Carrier air conditioners for all of his hotels now? I wouldn't be surprised. Would you? 

In Fortune magazine, the venerable onetime VP nominee Sarah Palin wrote: 

“When government steps in arbitrarily with individual subsidies, favoring one business over others, it sets inconsistent, unfair, illogical precedent,” she wrote.

Has Sarah Palin ever sounded so rational? 

And, oh look: it didn't take long for Trump to move from praising one company to denouncing another. Eight days. Then he tweeted this: 

• It's all about the spectacle

Donald Trump the man is a carny. He is long on spectacle and short on substance. Donald Trump the president is shaping up to be largely the same. He has said that he wants to continue to hold rallies as President, and indeed held the first of these on December First in Ohio when he kicked off his so-called Thank You Tour (#ThankYouTour2016).

In fact, the entirety of the Thank You Tour should be concerning to all Americans. The President-Elect is making a tour of states that were key to his win. He is holding huge self-congratulatory rallies in states that he won. Does that sound like the behavior of an American president? Or does that sound like the behavior of an emperor or fascist dictator?

And what better way to kick off a victory tour--because let's be serious, that's what the Thank You Tour really is--than with the backdrop of a victory for American jobs? 

Stick with me for a minute, because this bullet point needs explanation. The reason spectacle is a problem in terms of national policy is because it is used for its psychological effect on the population. History shows us that spectacles have been used to control the population through fear and national fervor. In terms of a Trump presidency, spectacle will likely be used to distract us from the president's YUGE conflicts of interest with his business interests. 

I'd say something about those conflicts of interest but those will have to wait for (several more) posts.

The revolution will be tweeted! 

Follow me: @LiteraryGrrrl