By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
Far be it from me to blame the attack on Paul Pelosi by a guy who posts typical QAnon/Trumpofoxian blather, on people like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a traitor who should be executed; or Tucker Carlson, et Fox, who demonize her in the most inflammatory language; or Junior Trump comparing her to Satan.
Near be it to me to point out the despicable responses to the attack from fellow Americans on the right: False flag. Staged. A gay liaison gone wrong. Nancy’s fault. What about Steve Scalise? (About whom the satanic Pelosi said at the time: “It’s an injury in the family. For the staff and for our colleague and for his leadership. We cannot let that be a victory for the assailant or anyone who would think that way.”) The right-wing Pelosi response also featured gleeful mockery and what they consider hilarity, including from Trump spawn (Twitter: tinyurl.com/junior4u; Bulwark: tinyurl.com/deplorables4u).
As it happens, the would-be kidnapper and torturer’s confessional isn’t hard to find. And the break-in was caught on camera; they debunk all the Trumpistry (New York Times: tinyurl.com/depape4u). But MAGA Republicans prefer conspiratorial cruelty. Retractions? Apologies? Not who they are. Not who their leader is.
Our politics have become too toxic. It’s incumbent upon us all to tone down the rhetoric.
Is what people say. Extend a hand, readers advise. Seek common ground. I don’t dispute the premise, but where? Does Hawaiian ground seek commonality with Mauna Loa’s lava? In these, the times that gave us Trump, common ground has become scorched earth.
What more can be said to MAGARs election deniers — after all this time with zero evidence of fraud — that would change their minds? The outreaching of which hand might convince them that climate change is real, even as glaciers melt, fires rage, oceans warm and acidify, and storms and heat waves bring death worldwide? That there aren’t 87,000 new IRS agents coming for their middle-class money; that Democrats aren’t for “open borders”? That the transgressions of Jan. 6, 2021, weren’t patriotic?
If there’s been political violence on “both sides,” there’s no equivalence, no comparable approval or fomenting from the left. In the past 20 years, there have been 122 political murders by right-wing American terrorists; by the left, one (YouTube: tinyurl.com/justone4u). Weigh 267 right-wing plots or attacks since 2015 against 66 by lefty extremists (Washington Post: tinyurl.com/4numbers2u). Nor is there equivalence in the lies coming from each side, including from the very top; or asking crowds to beat up protestors, promising to pay legal fees. Or in whose media conspiracy theories and other falsehoods spread like herpes. Only Trump has called America “Rigged, Crooked and Evil” (Truth Social: tinyurl.com/rigged4u).
The explanation isn’t difficult: in Trumpistan, democracy is the ultimate foe. Plus, it’s too hard. Autocracy is easy.
For democracies to endure, citizens must accept two most basic requirements: first, that voters make the effort to educate themselves about their political world. Which, in today’s calamitous climate, means ceaseless effort to extricate singular truths from multitudinous lies. Second, the lifeblood of functioning democracies — no longer of interest to MAGA Republicans and their propagandistic progenitors — is the willingness to accept electoral, legislative and judicial outcomes with which one disagrees. Including support for the peaceful, post-election transfer of power. Which is not to suggest remaining silent or forgoing working to effect change.
Because that’s the thing about democracies: not everyone agrees with you, and sometimes they win. MAGA is code for “return all power to white Christian males.” As that goal is threatened by our Constitutionally-mandated democratic processes, Trumpists are attempting to end them. Election denial is democracy rejection. It’s not mysterious.
The hard work of democracy affords little time off, whereas submitting to authoritarianism is a full-time vacation from responsibilities of citizenship. Go to rallies, thrill to the stoking. Trust your deified leader to tell you what to think, who’s your enemy, whom to blame for your failures; who’s your inferior, trying to take what you have. Or had, before that voting thing. Which must be repudiated, along with the undesirables it empowers.
It’s history, in repetition mode. And it’s Trump’s greatest con. And Republican leaders’. And every right-wing media star’s. Convincing millions who think they love this country to reject its indispensable Constitutional principles, while believing they’re upholding them. Accepting intentional destruction of democracy-preserving public education and fair elections. Persuaded to extinguish democracy, assured that, in doing so, they’re saving themselves. Ceding power (and riches) to Trumpic clones, who’ll protect them from not-them.
It’s ironic. Once their preferred autocracy is established, they’ll have no more power than the ones from whom they think they regained it. Democracy, they’ll discover, is what kept them safe. It’s a lesson too late for the learning, made of lies, made of lies.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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