Masters of Deception

Bob Topper

(9/22) No one likes a liar. Everyone knows lying is wrong. Even organized crime figures shun liars. Religious bans are not the reason. The reason that everyone is repulsed by lying is necessity. Truth is the foundation of societal order. It is fundamental to the success of any venture and all organizations. And because trust is essential in all human interactions, dishonest people are naturally disliked and avoided. In extreme cases like perjury, fraud, and deception, we incarcerate them.

Our trust in one another is what made and what makes America the exceptional society it is. US citizens trusted the government, and the government trusted them. This reciprocity, nonexistent in autocracies, is essential to a democracy. The governments of China and Russia, for example, do not trust their citizens to think freely and independently. They control the access and flow of information and control what people can know and think. The press and media are regulated. Russian law, for example, forbids calling the Ukrainian conflict a war.

Because it is essential to democracy, a breakdown in trust undermines our government. That is the palpable intent of the MAGA Republicans and their leader, Donald Trump, a would-be autocrat who frames our government and free press as enemies of the people. This is an absurdly false message. Trump wants his enemies to be thought of as the enemies of the American people. And his enemies are those who portray him honestly and accurately, namely reporters, and those agencies that have indicted him, both state and federal.

What is more, he is extraordinarily dishonest. The Washington Post tracked the number of lies Trump told during his administration... 30,573, on average 21 falsehoods per day. And that’s just what was on record. He lies with impunity and without remorse by projecting his failings on others. Liars tend to believe that everyone lies, and for Trump those are especially people he dislikes, e.g., Joe Biden, E Jean Carrol, Michael Cohen, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris. In Trump's mind they are all liars. And his delusion goes on as he clamors that he won the Harris Trump debate, and that Ohio immigrants are eating cats and dogs.

And Trump’s big lie, that he won the 2020 election, is in a class by itself. A fundamental law of propaganda attributed to Nazi Joseph Goebbels is "Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth." For the MAGA republicans the big lie has become their truth.

And because he tells them what they want to hear and believe, his followers accept his statements as true even when they obviously are not. He capitalizes on their frustrations and pent-up animosities by amplifying and focusing their anger. He blames, for example, illegal immigration for the loss of American jobs, while immigration has nothing to do with businesses moving production and jobs offshore. Yet it is something his followers want to believe.

During his administration, Trump praised autocrats like Putin and Kim Jong Un, criticized western leaders, and threatened to withdraw from NATO. Thus, our allies lost confidence in us. The Biden administration repaired those damaged relationships, and regained respect for America. At the same time America’s economy is flourishing, outpacing all others. Yet Trump and the MAGA Republicans relentlessly criticize the United States. Trump outrageously whines that ours is a nation in decline, that America is failing and controlled by wicked and incompetent people.

Some falsehoods are simply bonkers...doctors in blue states kill new-born babies; schools kidnap children and force them to undergo gender transition surgery and Democrats encourage undocumented immigrants to vote. This is pure claptrap, designed to manipulate what many hardworking people in this country believe. It paints a dark picture of America, relished by the Republican base while bewildering and embarrassing the rest of the nation.

Trump-MAGA deception is abetted by right wing critics. Tucker Carlson, in an interview with Darryl Cooper, attacked historical truths that unite us, stating that Hitler and the Nazis were the heroes of WW II, that Churchill was the real villain, and that concentration camps like Buchenwald were an unfortunate accident of war. And speaker Mike Johnson says voter fraud is a major problem though he is unable to show any evidence. He knows intuitively that it must be true! And his Republican House has spent this last session investigating the Biden family. They knew their charges were unfounded, but their cloaked objective was to shed doubt on Biden’s integrity. In truth, and unlike Trump’s, the Biden administration has been free of scandal.

Vladimir Putin supports Trump’s disinformation campaign. The Mueller report reveals Russia’s efforts to tip the scales in the 2016 presidential election. And the Department of Justice (DOJ) just indicted the Russian-state news site, RT, for money-laundering $10 million in efforts to sway US public opinion ahead of this November’s election and to also blame Ukrainians for the Russian invasion of their own country. The DOJ operation also seized 32 internet domains used by Russian agents to boost Trump’s approval ratings. Putin says he wants Harris to win, but his money is clearly backing Trump.

The goal of this international plot to undermine trust in American democracy is to make people believe that a different form of government would better serve America, an autocracy. One cannot emphasize enough that an autocracy is not the will of the public nor our Constitution. Trump, Putin and the MAGA followers envision a government modeled on the Project 2025 plan, which conforms to the Christian Nationalist’s world view, a view in which freedoms, especially women’s rights, are constrained by men. They want a government that controls what people may believe and think...a dystopian society devoid of reason that bans books and denies science.

At its core, this disinformation campaign is anti-American. In the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the founders embraced the principles of freedom, equality, and democracy. America is the embodiment of the Enlightenment philosophy, of the Age of Reason. Our society continues to evolve as evidenced by its inclusive views on abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and gender dysphoria in accordance with the founding truths of freedom and equality. The religious prohibitions are irrational and incompatible with these principles. This realignment of our thinking is not a decline in values but a fulfillment of America’s promise.

Mark Twain said, "Always do right. This will gratify some and astonish the rest." Margaret Chase Smith astonished the nation when she called out Senator McCarthy’s lies about communists infiltrating our government. And today we have Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who astonished fellow Republicans with their courage to reveal the truth about Donald Trump’s misconduct on Jan 6. Americans have a long history of admiring and supporting people who astonish them with the truth. A portion of our society may be content enough to hear what they want to hear, regardless of the facts. But human nature prefers and reveres those who do right and speak the truth. Trump and his MAGA followers have picked a fight that is unwinnable, for their deception is irrational and people naturally admire honesty.

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