Who can recall how they felt when they first heard the perpetual fantasist Donald Trump declaring that he had won the 2020 election? This is the same creep who had harassed Barack Obama for a decade with his incredibly oafish “birther” invention. And this is after he tried to have five young Black men put to death after another man’s DNA had been found on the victim. So the sane population, including me, thought this would all blow over, we knew that the authorities would count the votes and we could all move on with our lives.
Well, we know that never happened. And it is worthwhile to dive into why maybe 40 percent of the population accepts that a person who lies all the time is their idea of an amazingly wonderful guy. It was crystal clear that Trump lost to Joe Biden. Nobody who is on Team Sane believes there were voting, counting or machine irregularities. If you go to 2020-21, and read the statements by Trump’s allies right after the 2020 election, most are not on board at all. This includes Fox, the New York Post, former ally Chris Christie all are pretty shocked. According to the New York Times, Rick Santorum denounced Trump’s claim as dangerous and shocking, and stated that “counting absentee ballots and mail-in ballots is not fraud.”
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
— Joseph Goebels, Hitler’s chief of propaganda.
This “big lie” statement was an original in “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s major work, and Trump learned his lessons well. According to his deceased first wife (buried on a New Jersey golf course – classy) he had Hitler’s speeches next to the bed.
So Donald Trump was a good student of the dark arts. In less than four years, we have gone from a relatively secure electoral process to a completely undermined system. We now have multiple states with Trumpist election officials – officials who have absolutely no issue with disposing of Democrats’ votes, dropping a million people from the electoral rolls (see Texas) a mere few weeks before the election, governors who are happy to appoint the people the Trump campaign wants placed in critical positions relating to voting machines, counting totals, dealing with absentee ballots, poll access.
And Trump is laying the groundwork for a second and more serious “Stop the Steal” campaign. Every time one of these creeps – Trump, Vance, Bobby Jr, or any other lying cult member states that the polls are false, that Harris is a fake, that (true claim in August) Trump is at 93 percent in the polls, they are trying to convince their rubes that they can’t lose this election. Trump and his pals are so racist that it is possible that they really believe it themselves when they say Kamala Harris is not smart, she is a fake, she can’t do the job, and even some of them want to use the Dred Scott decision to try to keep Kamala off the ballot – an infamous Supreme Court decision that has been repudiated for over a century stating that Black people are not citizens, essentially. The racism and misogyny of the Trump campaign and most of the Republicans running in down ballot races has turned off many Americans, but the true Trump supporter knows that a Black woman cannot beat the great man. End of story.
As a person who does not believe in organized religion, it is not difficult to believe that all the right wing churches that are all in for Trump are also all in for lying whenever it is convenient, whenever he speaks in public. Weirdly, given the right’s obsession with the 10 Commandments – as in forcing schools to post them to remind kindergarteners not to commit adultery – the 9th commandment is shockingly “thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Am I reading this wrong? What does the fake “morality” of these Trump supporting churches really mean, when they contradict the most basic underpinnings of their moral teachings to support a selfish sociopath?
When Trump trounced a poor and out of it Biden in the June debate, he lied and lied and lied. He said Charlottesville never happened. He stated that Democrats support infanticide (abortion until birth,) and that everybody wanted Roe v. Wade overturned. He stated that Black Americans are superpredators – I don’t need to debunk that garbage. He blamed Nancy Pelosi for the January 6 chaos, stating that she turned down a National Guard presence. So many more lies on top of the lies.
Last big lie that we all need to make sure we confront: Trump continues to deny his fealty to the horrible 900-page Project 2025. Since it is written by all his Christofascist buddies, it is pretty clear who it is written for. And since most of the policies are those favored by Trump and his cult, it is a pretty big stretch for the lying orange man to state that he knows nothing about it, but even though he knows nothing, he is opposed to some elements of the plan. The whole concentration camp thing is pretty true to Trump’s past statements, as well as his idolization of Hitler.
So how do we combat the Big Lie? First and foremost, where ever you live, whoever you associate with, speak up. We all need to be the eyes and ears of the truth, if it means spending election day at a polling site far from home to be a poll watcher, volunteer. If you aren’t able to do so, maybe you can support someone else who can – watch her dog (or cat)? Write to social media – lots of great memes illustrate Trump’s many lies. Write to your local paper if you are lucky enough to still have one. Use your talents! We have a bit over two months to insure that the heir of Adolf Hitler does not capture the reins of power. Let’s get to work.
Nancy Braus is a regular columnist for the Reformer who writes from Guilford. The opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.
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Publish date : 2024-09-03 04:47:00
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