Presidential Paranoia

Who is the real "enemy of the people"? -- Pug Mahoney

   Paranoia is the mistaken belief that everyone is against you.
   But this president is not mistaken; many people are indeed against what he says and does, and are quite vocal about it. Therefore, he's not paranoid.
   Looked at another way, however, one can conclude that he is indeed paranoid because he expands disagreement on unrelated issues into a vast, organized conspiracy against him.
   For example, refocusing the image of football players kneeling to protest racial discrimination to allege that kneeling is unpatriotic or even treasonous, and therefore those who do so should be deported.
   Or insisting that an FBI investigation of possible Russian meddling in the presidential campaign was really "spying" on him.
   Or that an FBI director's refusal to pledge personal loyalty to him and drop an investigation into Russian meddling was cause for dismissal.

   The list could go on, but no need. News media have carried reports almost daily of examples of his attempts to abuse and misuse the American system for his personal benefit.
   And his predictable reaction has been to attack such reports as "fake news" and call journalists "the enemy of the people."
   That's another example of trying to redirect criticism and attack those who criticize.
   And that is, by definition, paranoia, and another way of identifying an enemy of democracy.