Throughout the Donald Trump impeachment saga, some including myself have been ticked by how often he has called the investigation into him a witch hunt and compared his plight to the Salem Witch Trials. These are people who were tortured, hung, burned at the stake and made to suffer without legitimate cause. Trump is free to do what he pleases with only his legacy at stake.
Evidently I’m not alone in my annoyance, as the mayor of the town of Salem has criticized him for making such an uninformed comparison.
The mayor of Salem, Kim Driscoll, took to Trump’s favorite social media platform Twitter to advise the president to “learn some history.”
Trump sent a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the eve of his impeachment vote, blasting the impeachment process.
He wrote: “More due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials. One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so that it can never happen to another President again.”
Well that didn’t sit well with Driscoll. She wrote: “Learn some history: 1) Salem 1692 = absence of evidence+powerless, innocent victims were hanged or pressed to death.” She followed that with, “2)#Ukrainegate 2019 = ample evidence, admissions of wrongdoing+perpetrators are among the most powerful+privileged.”
She later said the comparison of impeachment proceedings to Salem’s painful legacy is “offensive” to both the victims and their descendants. “People in Salem want this history remembered so that it acknowledges going forward what never, ever should happen again,” she added in an interview with WCVB-TV.
The Salem Witch Trials were an abhorrent period in history when people were murdered for exhibiting power. Fear of spiritual beliefs that did not conform to the norm exacerbated the problem. To this day, there are people who hide their metaphysical beliefs and abilities because they are afraid of being persecuted as victims of the Salem Witch Trials have been.
It doesn’t seem that the Wiccan community is thrilled about having their named invoked by Trump. In fact, the act of using magic and witchcraft to fight Donald Trump’s presidency has become more and more common of late.
