Opinion: Donald Trump is a dissident who advocates only for himself and his selected few

Donald Trump is a dissident but he is also a felon. Donald Trump has been convicted by his peers on 34 felony counts. A jury of the former president’s peers found him liable for sexual abuse. Donald Trump was found guilty of fraud and fined close to a half-billion dollars by the State of New York. As with countless instances, Trump claims that he has been treated unfairly. At some point that argument has to wear thin. So, yes, Donald Trump is a dissident but what kind of dissident is he?

Henry David Thoreau was a dissident in the early 19th century. He actually wrote a book titled “Civil Disobedience.” He was a lifelong abolitionist. Noted worldwide peace activists Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. were heavily influenced by his philosophy of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a dissident in the early 19th century. Most of his writings  were essays. In 1837 he gave a speech titled “The American Scholar,” to which Oliver Wendell Holmes declared as the American “Intellectual Declaration of Independence.” Emerson was an abolitionist. While Emerson was more than a decade older than Thoreau, they were close friends.

Both men are known for their commitment to transcendentalism, which is a philosophy based upon reason and that expresses progressive views toward feminism and communal living.

These men lived in a country that allowed them to express such thoughts openly as a result of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. These freedoms of thought and expression were privileges afforded to a very few who lived outside the borders of this new nation. These men took advantage of the opportunity the founding fathers had provided. They were free thinkers who seriously pondered what they might believe to be beneficial to human existence and strived to make those thoughts known. Although Thoreau did spend a night in jail for not paying a poll tax, these men were free to express themselves and to exercise what influence they might have over the thoughts of their fellow citizens.

There are probably those who disagree with the approaches and attitudes of Thoreau and Emerson. While these men were probably quite adamant in presenting their thoughts and beliefs, there is no indication that these men imposed their beliefs on others. They were developing their philosophies of life in the period between the American Revolutionary War and the Civil War. This was a period of significant disagreement among the leaders of this nation, largely for reasons of self interest. With that said, Thoreau and Emerson exercised their freedoms of expression on behalf of the benefit of citizens and was in keeping with the intent of the founding fathers when expressing demands for a nation free of tyranny and for government by the people.

So for whom is Donald Trump a dissident? All indications point to his own personal needs and desires as his arguments for a return to office are weak. His arguments for making America great again are also weak as the country is much better off since his presidency than during his presidency. Since he left office, unemployment is down, wages are up, inflation is dropping and people have stopped dying. His followers are prone towards violence which he appears to endorse, although at times his endorsements are subtle.

There is an easy argument that the dissidence exercised by Thoreau and Emerson was for the expansion of principles put forth by the founding fathers. These men were advocating for a way of life that was suppressed by those who sought governmental structures supporting their own self-interest and desire for power.

Thoreau and Emerson were advocating for others while Donald Trump is advocating for himself and the limited few who seek benefit from his rise to power.

Donald Trump has publicly talked about punishing those who are in opposition to his return to power. Punishment was no part of the philosophy put forth by Thoreau and Emerson.

It is time to recognize that Donald Trump’s dissidence is counter to the dissidence expressed by the founding fathers for individual freedom and government by the people.

“When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou

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Lee Sease lives in Burnsville. He is a former Superintendent of Schools in Middlebury, Vermont.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Donald Trump is a dissident only for himself and chosen few