By Sid Schwab
Our democracy had a nice run, didn’t it? However, when one political party values truth, public education, press freedom, equal rights, economic fairness and unencumbered elections while the other sees them as obstacles and has taken full control, survival is improbable.
We knew it was coming when Fox “news” appeared, calling itself “fair and balanced” while off-gassing disinformation and context-altered video. Simultaneously, right-wing attacks increased on so-called mainstream media; i.e., any that didn’t parrot the party line. There’s now a hardened core of voters who reject any evidence, no matter how solid, which refutes their preferred disbeliefs. To them, climate change is a hoax, Hillary is crooked and Donald isn’t, Putin is our pal, trickle down economics works. They deny Trump lies, or they’re OK with it; can’t tell the difference or don’t care. How many believe he won “one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history”? Amazingly (or not), 52 percent of Republicans think he also won the popular vote.
“The big lie” was beanbag. This is nuclear war on reality. If most politicians lie sometimes, in Trumpland it’s foundational, and it’ll continue until followers demand better. Forever, in other words.
Inculcated ignorance is America’s weapon of mass self-destruction: deliberate falsehoods repeated enough to enough credulous people to take hold, no matter how absurd. If you’ll believe Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring out of a pizza joint, believe it enough to bust into the place, locked and loaded, you’ll believe anything. And it’s not just that guy. It’s Trump’s choice for national security adviser (Politico: tinyurl.com/nat-sec-fake) and his ex-transition team son, who said of pizzagate, “Until proven false it’ll remain a story.” It’s Trump’s go-to source for the latest lunatic conspiracy, Alex Jones (tinyurl.com/jones-nutty); it’s his senior policy adviser, Steve Bannon, straight from the internet’s second most deranged website, right after Jones’.
Nor is this the fringe of today’s Republican Party. It’s their Speaker of the House, who claims Trump’s lies should be ignored, and their vice-president-elect, who considers them “refreshing.” Taking it to its ineluctable conclusion, a member of Trump’s staff recently said, “There’s no such thing as facts anymore.” (The Hill: tinyurl.com/HughesFacts). Another announced that what’s important is not whether something is true, it’s whether enough people believe it’s true. Knowing full well the power of this proposition, they’re doing everything necessary to unbuild the wall between truth and fiction. As effective as it’s already been, it’ll be catastrophic when the disseminators have all the power. If you’re not worried, you’re assimilated (YouTube: tinyurl.com/futile-assim).
So this is how it ends: When the people in charge see truth as inimical to their intentions, their leader producing lie upon lie amidst ominous threats of retribution against media and all who criticize, including Congressional Republicans. Some out of fear, as several Congressfolk have admitted, others out of gullibility, a critical mass of Americans is joining in or staying silent. Inducing silence by creating fear of reprisal has always preceded the march to tyranny. We’ve embarked on the road.
Not satisfied that his Goebbellian attacks on critical media will keep his flock adequately narcotized, after the CIA confirmed Russian hacking, Trump went after the intelligence community, too. Because if there remain any credible sources of information that run contrary to his perpetual prevarication they must be swept away. Attention diverted, Trumpophiles are eager to be swept along. If truth is dispensable to one political party, it most certainly is not to democracy. History tells what follows. George Orwell, it turns out, was a documentarian.
If you believe, for a few examples, Trump’s conflicts of interest don’t matter, millions voted illegally, Sharia law can be imposed here, homosexuality is a choice, the press is our enemy, we can ignore climate change, there’s a war on Christmas, the CIA is wrong, Trump will “drain the swamp,” he has a secret ISIS plan, his Russia connections aren’t worrisome, “the president can’t lie if he doesn’t know the truth,” you’ve been cozened by a carefully constructed con.
For the next four years, we’ll have a president more likely to be lying than truthful, while too many members of a once-respectable political party, hating “liberals” more than they love democracy, blind to the consequences, thinking (until it’s too late) they’re winners, won’t care.
Happy New Year, though.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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