President Donald Trump's campaign reminded me of the fairy tale, "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Just as the piper hypnotized the children of Hamelin, Trump's rhetoric mesmerized his followers into abandoning common sense, which very easily could lead to disastrous results. No matter what Trump says, his choir and handlers accept it without question or try to redefine what he said or meant.
An excellent example of this phenomenon is the current question on the size of the crowd during Trump's inauguration as compared to the crowds at the inaugurations of President Barack Obama. Trump's claim was that his was the largest ever, which also was an example of a childish demand to always be first. When pictures were produced to show that Obama did indeed have a larger crowd, Trump went into one of his denial modes, requiring his handlers to try and justify Trump's reaction.
Senior Advisor Kellyanne Conway thought she could explain away the discrepancy by stating that there were "alternative facts," whatever that meant. Press Secretary Sean Spicer went one step further, declaring Trump did not lie because he sincerely believed what he said, and if one believes it to be true then it cannot be a lie.
The real scary part was twofold, the first being that if President Trump doesn't know or refuses to accept the difference between fact and fiction then our country is in serious danger. How can the public believe in a president who doesn't know the difference? The second is that his choir either doesn't care about this deficiency or also doesn't know the difference.
In either case, a voting public (thank goodness it was a minority, even though Trump believes he was in the majority), with little regard for being knowledgeable and/or truthful, put America in serious jeopardy.
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Burleigh K. Rapp
Duluth
