On Friday night, future vice president Mike Pence attended a Broadway production of the hit musical, "Hamilton." After the show, amidst the audience booing at Pence, actor Brandon Victor Dixon, who plays Aaron Burr, delivered an address from the stage.
“We, sir — we are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us. We truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us,” Dixon said. “This is one American story told by a diverse group of men and women of different colors, creeds, and orientations.” His speech was met with loud applause.
Of course, comments like this don’t go unnoticed. Dixon’s wise words were rapidly spread around the internet and were met with both praise and disgust. Future president Donald Trump was indignant over what he perceived as a slight against Pence. He angrily tweeted Dixon, who replied courteously, even thanking Pence for taking the time to stop and listen to what he had to say.
Lin Manuel Miranda applauded Dixon for “leading with love” and went on to say that “ALL are welcome in the theater.”
Trump also tweeted separately that the theater “must always be a safe and special place.” This comment unleashed even more a firestorm than the original one he made. Many people snapped back at Trump that he had no right to be talking about safe spaces. After everything he has already done to make minority groups feel endangered and unwelcome, there was, rightfully, a great deal of anger.
Furthermore, tweeters are now saying that Trump sent Pence to the theater to distract the public from other things that he’s currently working on. There was a $25 million settlement on the Trump University case, and Ivanka is attending a meeting with the Japanese prime minister. By posting angrily about what happened at the show, Trump draws the attention of the public away from issues that actually matter.
The popularity of social media in today’s society presents a new venue for our leaders that is only just emerging. People tend to look at their accounts more than they do actual news sources, presenting a very skewed set of information. It is rapidly becoming easy to show people just a tiny fragment of what’s actually going on and is important, a technique hopefully Trump will not come to exploit once he becomes the leader of our country.
