Sick of the daily, mindless barrage of Twitter messages yet? Even before we had a President who abused social media as his primary communication channel I will admit I was sick of Twitter. My early dislike for the platform has not changed - and with the Donald's help my thoughts and opinion about those who use it have become even more negative. Over the first 550 days of Trump's disastrous term in office he's launched some 1,624 "Tweets" already this year...an average of 8 per day. 4,084 Tweets since taking office. There is even a website that archives every one of the Donald's 34,419 pathetic messages he's posted on Twitter dating back to 2009. Over the past year & half Trump has posted 129 Tweets attacking his predecessor, 138 Tweets disparaging Hillary Clinton...likely because she received nearly 3 million more votes than Trump.
Exactly who is his
audience? The media, be it Fox or the rest of the news organizations
that Trump lumps into his broad category of "fake news", all seem to cover
his daily posts. But why? There are some 69 million Twitter
accounts in the US of A
which means less than a quarter of Americans are following Trump's daily
rants, and many analysts say only half of the Twitter accounts are
"active"...so why do Trump's mindless, factually challenged missives garner
such attention? I've wondered about that for years. During the
2016 Presidential Campaign I mistakenly thought it was a good thing that the
Donald's harebrained communiqués got such widespread coverage and provided
evidence to the voting public that he was unfit for office. Well, I
was not counting on 40% of registered voters to sit on their hands and stay
home on election day. Trump's daily tirade delivers fuel for his base of
37% of voters...but why are the rest of us allowing this to happen?
Can you spell i-m-p-e-a-c-h-m-e-n-t? Yet I realize he's
not on the ballot for the 2018 mid-term elections, and our current focus
shouldn't be on the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave...rather, the focus
needs to be finding ways to neutralize him.
One positive aspect of Trump's Twitter War is the way it reveals & documents his many inconsistencies and flaws. The record documents how wrong he is on so many topics & issues, and how juvenile his attacks are on those he disagrees with ("the losers & haters"). There are nearly as many examples of Trump's erroneous messages as there are Trump Tweets, in total, but here are few for context: "Nobody has more respect for women than Donald Trump!" (3/26/16), and, "Barack Obama's birth certificate is a fraud," (8/6/12). An entire website is devoted to Trumps frequent "flip/flops" and issues big & small. Need some levity on a typically frustrating news day? Bookmark the following: TrumpCriticizesTrump, or 'President Flip Flops' - Wear Trump's Contradictory Tweets on Your Feet.
Sure, we Americans can find humor - that inevitable silver lining - in any
situation, no matter how nasty and dangerous Trump may be. But I worry more
that Trump’s Twitter threats put American credibility on the line and ruin our status as that
bright shining light on a hill to the rest of the world. Recent
trips to NATO conference and his "secret summit" with Putin have been the
source of dozens of deranged tweets by the President. (I still have
trouble referring to him using that title). But his Tweets of late have
been fact-checked and rebuked. "Over four days, false claims dominated
Trump's Twitter feed" writes the Washington Post in a captivating
article.
His base in particular need to read it. He is an embarrassment...and
just like during the 2016 election, I keep hoping the American electorate is
paying serious attention and votes these creepy people out of office...but I
was wrong then...hoping that I'm not wrong now.