“And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.”
– Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt, noted philosopher and political theorist, one of the most influential political thinkers of the 20thCentury, wrote profusely about totalitarianism and the rise of such dictators as Hitler and Stalin. Her quote above describes what has happened to the 70 million people who voted for Trump, and the 126 GOP representatives who signed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to allow the state of Texas to file a lawsuit that sought to invalidate the election results in the states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, all of which President Donald Trump lost. Thank goodness all nine justices struck down the request, and Democracy prevailed for yet another day. The fact that 126 members of Congress, who swore to uphold the Constitution sought to defy the will of the people and invalidate their votes is unconscionable!
Remember the movie “Gaslight?” We have been royally gaslighted, and like Ingrid Bergman’s character Paula, we’ve been conditioned to trust no one but our abuser, and to believe nothing, and doubt ourselves and each other. Those Americans who voted for Trump, those who adhere to Qanon conspiracy theories, those right-wingers threatening election officials, those who distrust the press, and those who still think that Hillary was running a child-porn ring out of a pizza joint in DC can’t make up their minds. For example, at the Trumper rally in DC today, the Proud Boy’s leader shouted to the MAGA crowd, “destroy the GOP,” and he went on to rant against the GOP because they didn’t protect Trump. And in Georgia, conspiracy theorists are casting doubt on the special election in January, calling on voters to not vote for Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue because the election is rigged. What? The GOP sycophants and the Trumpers don’t believe anything, they can’t make up their minds, they’re attacking each other, and their actions are serious warnings of a lack of judgment and thinking. The 126 GOP Representatives didn’t think that putting their names on the amicus brief wouldn’t smell of sedition and a violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution?
Sadly, there is no real Republican Party anymore, it’s the Trump Party. Say goodbye to the legacies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and John McCain. This week more than ever, it has become obvious that the GOP does not believe in democracy, they believe in the oligarchy. The frivolous election lawsuits filed by Trump, Rudy, and their posse of lawyers carry on the oligarchical tradition of shutting out poor voters, women, and people of color. The countless tax-breaks for the rich show that they don’t believe in the equal redistribution of wealth. Trump supporters like Cruz, Rubio, Jordan, and McConnell think that any kind of government that provides a social safety net, accessible health care, affordable education, regulates business, or promotes green energy, or seeks to improve our national infrastructure is a step towards socialism. The reason these GOP oligarchs fling the dirty word of “socialism” around like it’s a four-letter-word is that they see it as the redistribution of tax dollars to all Americans, as opposed to the wealthy 1%. If I had a dollar for every time Ted Cruz or Mitch McConnell harp on about socialism’s potential for destroying America, I would be one of the 1%! They are lying, it’s all lies. Oligarchs like to lie, that way they keep us guessing and doubting ourselves.
Speaking of lies, what about Trump’s thousands upon thousands of lies? His insistence on making baseless claims about a “rigged” election, drawing false comparisons between President-elect Joe Biden’s performance in swing states with that of Hillary and Obama. Trump’s now lost or withdrawn some 50 lawsuits, he refuses to concede, continues to hurl daily tirades of lies and misinformation. Trump multitudinous tweets continually bombard us with lies, and more lies, every exhausting day; it goes on endlessly and repeatedly. I think that the real damage done by Trump’s lies is not that he’s untruthful, the real damage is that he has firmly planted the seeds of doubt. Like Paula in “Gaslight,” the barrage of lies, misinformation, no matter who absurd, no matter how outrageous, has taken hold of the American psyche, and has caused us to doubt ourselves, and most importantly, our Democracy. The MAGA, Proud Boys, and “Stop the Steal” marchers in DC today are symbols of this doubt: They believe that the election was stolen from Trump, yet they shout that they want to “destroy the GOP.” They scorn the media, they detest Democrats, they think that socialism is evil, that COVID-19 is a hoax, and that white people are the superior race. They’re all over the place, I can’t keep up.
I live in a fairly conservative neighborhood, and I marvel at my neighbors who still have their Trump flags up. They are the doubters, the ones who cannot face the facts because the panorama of lies painted by Trump and his allies have taken hold of them. Just like Paula, the lies have become so commonplace, that Americans don’t know what to believe, and this is a very dangerous place to be in a Democracy. If we doubt the efficacy of our most basic right to vote, if we doubt that it is the people who elect their representatives in fair and just elections, then we’re screwed. Like Paula, we need to wake up. Trump and his enablers have been abusing us for the last four years, they have destabilized our nation, constantly putting us on edge, leading us to doubt ourselves. Time to wake up and work towards putting our nation and our Democracy back together: Time to let the oligarchs know that they can’t do with us what they please.