No enemies of the people

In his latest philippic against the President, Senator Flake condemned him for describing the news media as the "enemy of the American people" in February 2017. "Enemy of the people" is a Stalinist phrase, Flake argues, and the sort of slander only someone of a despotic mindset would use. The context of Trump's complaint is, if not entirely dismissed, effectively minimized by the Arizonan orator. As he sees it, the President lashed out at critics because he can't stand criticism. By Flake's standard, that pretty much disqualifies Donald Trump from any role in American politics.

Any of us who have spent time in public life have endured news coverage we felt was jaded or unfair. But in our positions, to employ even idle threats to use laws or regulations to stifle criticism is corrosive to our democratic institutions. Simply put: it is the press’s obligation to uncover the truth about power. It is the people’s right to criticize their government. And it is our job to take it.

In other words, the media must be given the benefit of the doubt, not by presuming them innocent or always truthful but by allowing them to err on the side of vigilance against encroaching tyranny. Better to let them fudge the facts, or perhaps even to lie -- I do not claim that this is how the media actually treats Trump -- than to let the leader use "fake news" as an excuse to suppress dissent. Flake claims, cluelessly I think, that the President's "fake news" rhetoric has emboldened authoritarians around the world to crack down on dissent in their own ranks. While some may have added the phrase "fake news" to their propaganda arsenals, I otherwise doubt whether the leaders cited by the senator need any instruction from America on how to suppress dissent.

For Flake, "despotism is the enemy of the people," while "The free press is the despot’s enemy, which makes the free press the guardian of democracy." Given his visceral reaction to the phrase "enemy of the people," it seems fair to assume that Flake doesn't believe that there is, or can be, an "enemy of the people" among the people. As a libertarian-leaning Republican, his base assumption more likely is that state power is the root of all danger. For the sake of argument, let's question this premise. Can there be no "enemies of the people" among the people (i.e. within the "private sector" or "civil society") in a liberal democracy? Does the senator believe that there is such a thing as treason? Most likely he does. What, then, is a traitor? Is he merely an "enemy of the state," or may one call him by extension, in a democracy, an "enemy of the people?" The terms should be synonymous, yet "enemy of the people" somehow sounds more sinister to some ears. That may be because "the people" whose enemies are denounced by dictators or demagogues is often defined in a partial or partisan way. It's often assumed that "the people" is used dishonestly, whether by the purportedly populist and allegedly racist President,for whom only certain Americans really count as "the people," or by totalitarian partisans for whom "the people" only exist through or by the grace of their party.

From an ideologically pluralist or individualist perspective, the mere idea of a "people" in a liberal state may be suspect, a threat to individualism or pluralism. It doesn't follow, however, that either "the people" or "enemy of the people" should always have menacing connotations. If populists, for instance, are only materialist conservatives, concerned with the welfare of the actually existing people of their nation instead of "human rights," one can be an "enemy of the people" in their eyes simply by harming or threatening to harm the material interests of those people. While one could see businesses as "enemies of the people" (though libertarians would rather not) in a number of ways, whether by taking jobs away, polluting the environment, operating unsafe workplaces, etc., it's hard to see how the media can be "enemies of the people" unless they are literally treasonous in the uncontroversial sense of the word, and not even Trump has accused them of that, to my knowledge. Nevertheless, that possibility always exists, if not in the media as a class than among individual media entities. For that reason, calling the media the "enemy of the people" may be a lie or a tantrum, but it shouldn't be treated as the blasphemy Flake condemns in his speech. Simply put, if the other side can portray Donald Trump -- or, for that matter, media entities like Fox News and Breitbart -- as an enemy of the people, as many clearly feel that he is, then turnabout is no more than fair play, so long as neither side uses the claim to circumvent the rule of law and people's constitutional rights. Donald Trump may be violating some unwritten rule by talking back to his critics rather than simply "taking it," but he's only exercising the same right that his critics exercise. As long as they all have the same right, let 'em fight.