Jan 14, 2017 3 min read

Donald Trump and one of his closest advisors are reminiscent of two of the characters in “Animal Farm,” the George Orwell novel. “Animal Farm” is an allegorical reference to the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin. I realize that Trump is not a Marxist, but he shares some of the dystopian views of leadership displayed by such dictators as Stalin.

In the story, the animals, led by the pigs, revolt, and drive Farmer Jones from Manor Farm. After their success, the animals rename the farm “Animal Farm,” and paint seven rules on the side of the barn. The most important of the seven is the rule, “All animals are equal.” After an internal struggle among the leading pigs, a pig named Napoleon becomes the dictator. As he changes the rules to favor the pigs, some of the other animals remember the original rules and protest. A pig named Squealer goes about defending the new rules by convincing one and all that the rules always read the way they now read. The rule regarding animal equality now reads, “All the animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.”

Trump has told some very outlandish lies, all well-documented, and he has voiced some ideas that would lead me to believe he sees himself as some kind of dictator. Comparing Trump to the Napoleon character in Orwell’s book is, I admit, a bit of a reach. But the character Squealer is much like Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. While Squealer jumps from side to side to help distract from his propaganda, Conway distracts with her disarming sweet smile and calm manner.

I’ve been watching Conway try to explain Trump since he hired her. The more I saw of her, the more I thought of Squealer. Two examples from Conway’s recent appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” prove my point.

First, I should note that no one should ever consider Conway a coward. She agreed to be interviewed by Maddow knowing that Maddow leans to the left, and would do her best to discredit her and Trump. I think Conway also realized that Maddow is an extremely intelligent, aggressive interviewer.

Bravery does not make up for obfuscation.

Maddow questioned Conway regarding Trump’s Twitter statement that the United States “must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” Maddow did not address the obvious problem that policy statements do not lend themselves to tweets that are limited to 140 characters. Conway tried repeatedly, and disingenuously, to deny any knowledge about nuclear policy, and said Trump’s statement did not constitute a proposal to grow the U.S. nuclear arsenal, despite that fact that the statement clearly did so.

Maddow brought up the Trump lie about ABC-TV journalist Martha Raddatz crying on election night. This, another one of Trump’s bald-faced lies, has been disproven. When Maddow asked if Raddatz might expect an apology, Conway, her charming smile intact, stumbled with a weak response about apologies like that not being made publicly. When Maddow retorted that the accusation was public, Conway tried to switch the conversation to Trump’s complaints about his negative press coverage.

Just as Squealer jumped from side to side, Conway smiles sweetly and makes statements in a calm manner as if what she says will somehow make Trump’s misogyny and his dystopian ideas appear rational and democratic.

LeRoy Bloom is a resident of Lawrence and a former Marine.