Dear editor,
During his first campaign, Donald Trump complained that people were mounting a “witch hunt” against him, relying on the conventional implication that the quarry doesn’t exist and the hunt is futile and fruitless.
But those were conventional times. Who was prepared for the ways that Donald Trump stands reality on its head? Trump’s strategy, “the art of the deal,” is to destabilize the opponent to the point of bewilderment, knowing that rational people rarely can understand the irrational.
But in fact, with inspiration drawn from history books, Trump signals exactly what he will do if we tune our ears to the right frequency. So when he railed against “witch hunts,” we might have expected he was contemplating deploying the practice for his own use.
Centuries ago, in Europe, the uneducated believed that disasters, pestilence,
crop failures, and unconventional behaviors were the work of witchcraft. Many churchmen throughout the period condemned it as superstition but the “witch craze” overswept the public imagination, especially in northern Europe and England, when thousands of unfortunate suspects were scapegoated as heretics or witches, and seized with no evidence other than hearsay, resulting in the murders of hundreds of thousands of suspects, as we know from the infamous witch trials of colonial Massachusetts.
The Salem Trials are now known to be a farce, with the foreseen outcome thanks to a chorus of naïve young girls whom church leaders had coached to bear false witness against the victims (and conveniently blamed on an enslaved woman of color, Tituba, who later, intimidated, made “confessions” that satisfied the prurient interests of her interrogators).
Aside from the inquisitions, “tests” were performed to ferret out guilt. All were of the “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” variety. The most notorious one was the “swimming test.”
We are witnessing a modern replay of the witch hunt. Warrantless, willy-nilly seizures of agricultural workers presumed guilty at first glance, thrown into the Catch-22 of a judicial system that evokes esoteric, ancient laws to evade due process, knowing the language barrier alone precludes their civil rights. False imprisonment far from family and legal support, with little or no recourse. Arraignments that don’t happen because the accused is hustled onto a plane before the court date, in one Texas county, forfeiting his bail bond.
The claim to be fighting domestic terrorism is turned on its head when the selfsame terrorism is meted out on the innocent by implication, through imprisonment, threats, withholding of benefits, imposition of onerous requirements to exercise rights, and naked fearmongering.
Donald Trump said as much in his mention of witch hunts. He has dropped other broad hints dismissed by many as bluster, joking, ignorance, or the senile ramblings of an old man. Every practice, plan, action, and fantastical scheme of Donald Trump is premeditated. He is, indeed, a brilliant politician, as his supporters have said. Keep your eyes and ears open.
Julia Purdy, Bridport
