Emissary of Enmity

What Trump offers America

By Timothy P. Holmberg

There has been a common thread in every election for president in our nation’s history. Each candidate who ran to be president attempted to tap into a particular characteristic of the American psyche in their rise to office. Those who succeeded, tapped into the right characteristic at the right moment. Sometimes (most of the time) the instincts they tapped into were centered on an inspiring vision, or a determination that spoke with candor to our collective challenges.

For FDR, it was determination and perseverance to meet the challenges of the Great Depression, and turn back a rising tide of fascism. For JFK, he stoked our imagination and initiative to go to the moon, and embraced a sense of American decency (even if he fell short privately). For Reagan, he evoked an imagery that set America at the center of the world, “a shining city on a hill” (while turning a blind eye to AIDS and our nation’s mentally ill). Clinton pulled at our sense of being able to do important things by dispensing with extremes (perhaps recklessly in hindsight). Bush Jr. was the “compassionate conservative “ (sort of), and Obama was “Hope” (if a bit too hopeful).

Which brings us to our two contenders in this election. Harris offers things that would be very familiar to our past presidents - stability, hope, decency, inspiration, determination . . . and then there’s Trump.

What exactly is he offering to the American people? It’s an important question that the media and many Americans have not asked nearly enough. What does he actually bring to the game? Chaos? A decadent indecency? Grievance? Certainly all those, but more than anything, he pulls at a darker American instinct, one of enmity.

“Enmi-what?”, you ask.

Miriam Webster Dictionary defines enmity:

enmity (noun) en•mi•ty: Enmity and its synonyms "hostility," animosity,and animus all indicate deep-seated dislike or ill will. Enmity (which derives from an Anglo-French word meaning "enemy") suggests true hatred, either overt or concealed. Hostility implies strong, open enmity that shows itself in attacks or aggression. Animosity carries the sense of anger, vindictiveness, and sometimes the desire to destroy what one hates. Animus is generally less violent than animosity, but definitely conveys active prejudice or ill will.

Enmity has deep roots in American instincts, some would say even in our founding. Our entire system of governance could be looked on more cynically as a system created to manage our  innate tendencies toward enmity.  A design dedicated to ensuring our simmering animosities did not break out into open hostility. That system largely worked, with the exception of the Civil War, when it clearly failed. Of course we did not invent emnity in America. But our notions of exceptionalism, fairness, equality and comity all suggest we have been better than our peers at taming our own enmity.

The reality though, is considerably different. Honest examination shows the objects of American enmity ranged from native peoples to gays; black people to those seeking asylum; people of different religions, and certainly insufficiently subservient women seeking control of their own bodies (particularly those childless single women with cats). Even books seem to be able to stoke our enmity these days. None of these social animosities has been laid to rest. They remained, if below the surface, waiting for someone to harness. And Trump certainly has done just that.

Trump is an emissary of enmity

If you step back and look at the broad sweep of Trump’s campaign, it is built almost entirely of simmering enmities. He regularly presides over an atmosphere of sexism, racism, homophobia/transphobia and virtually any imaginable hatred one can hold. All woven together with an implied, if not expressed threat of violence. Of course the most ardent Trump supporter will dispute this as vehemently as an alcoholic denies their own status. What’s so remarkable about Trump is that these things were, until recently, viewed as toxic to any serious presidential aspirant. But Trump revels in them daily.

Trump’s success lays bare any notions that enmity has been excised from our civil experiment. His success shows a country that is deeply insecure. And insecure countries are ripe for the likes of Trump. He preys on American anxieties in the same manner as some of the darker figures in human history (think Stalin).

Every day with Trump is another exercise in enmity. He stokes a hatred of Haitians by presenting them (falsely) as eating our precious pets. In the depths of a natural disaster he stirs enmity towards immigrants and the federal government. He spouts outright lies that Biden/Harris are purposely denying aid to conservative regions and usurping disaster aid to give to illegal immigrants. His actions are certainly repugnant, but they are worse than that. They are tied to a malicious intent that forms the basis of violence against communities. His stoking of enmity tears apart the social fabric of a country until it can look on with indifference at the violence that results. He issues threats to use the military against these “enemies” among us, and it gets dismissed as a rhetorical indulgence.

The horrifying beauty of what Trump does so eloquently, is to place himself outside and adjacent to the hate and violence he instigates. “Fine people on both sides”.

But wait”, his supporters say, “hasn’t he endured two assassination attempts? Isn’t it the inflated rhetoric of the left that is stirring enmity in our nation?”

That is the sick genius of his actions. He is stoking both the left and the right. He antagonizes one group thereby green-lighting his more extreme supporters. On one side, it is alliance without embracement. “Stand back and stand by”, as Trump communicated to Proud Boys extremists in a debate. On the other, it is misrepresenting and vilifying to the point of antagonism towards Antifa and BLM. All of this is done in pursuit of an equality of violence as cover for where he is taking the nation. In reality, and the statistics will bear this out, a disproportionate majority of violence has originated from the right. Even excluding January 6th, there has been a massive uptick in violence against public office holders, threats to public events and communities, and hate crimes emanating predominantly from the right wing of the spectrum.

His invitation to our nation, is to encourage mutual hatred to an extent not seen since the Civil War. Calling out his nature is not inciting violence. Rather failing to call it out would enable blindness. Muzzling ourselves from speaking truth would allow Trump to weaponize our sense of decency and fairness, while he remains unencumbered by such things.

So how do we answer his enmity without becoming agents of it?

In short, by shining our light on Trump and rightwing extremists rather than his supporters. If we view and treat his supporters as the enemy, we are only aiding him in his quest. The people that stormed the nations’s Capitol are actually among Trump’s victims. People who undoubtedly love the country, but have been manipulated to hating certain parts of it. To rework a phrase used against the gay community, we must “love the sinner, and hate the sin”.

The question that will be answered on November 5th, is whether enough of us will not only reject enmity, but embrace a greater unity. There is only one candidate that embodies that in this race. And it certainly is not Trump.