In her book “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,” Jennifer Mercieca concludes that Trump’s words are weapons, well calculated to attack our public sphere by increasing distrust, polarization and frustration, making it more difficult to solve political problems among key players.
After years of reading columns by Pat Neal, our local “wilderness gossip columnist,” I contend that, he too, uses words as weapons, well calculated to attack our public sphere by increasing distrust, polarization and frustration, making it more difficult to solve salmon restoration problems among key players.
For example, labeling Clallam County as “Calamity County” or labeling the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife as “We Destroy Fishing in Washington.”
In August, 2019, a reporter asked Trump about the country’s ongoing trade war with China.
Most likely nuancing that previous presidents failed to alleviate this problem, Trump looked to heavens and proclaimed, “I am the chosen one.”
In his Jan. 12 PDN column, Neal ends by writing, “Exposing these and other obvious frauds is an easy job, but somebody has to do it.”
A striking similarity of rhetoric promoting self-aggrandizement, not rhetoric promoting collective, proactive problem solving.
Eldon Baker
Sequim
EDITOR’S NOTE: Pat Neal, a fishing guide and historian living on the West End, writes a humor column for the Peninsula Daily News.