Liars, damned liars, and Republicans
The axis of Russian propaganda and GOP authoritarianism has politicized truth itself
There are liars, damn liars, and Republicans.
Right wing media is full of complaints about the left’s supposed attempts to stifle their free speech. These are the women and men who are banning books. But never mind that, they are in high dudgeon because their fellow Americans are fed up with their lies. Children were murdered senselessly in Sandy Hook, but MAGA spokesmen claim they should be free to argue that the parents of the dead are leftists, and the slaughter didn’t happen. These are the women and men who passed a law to make it illegal to tell a pregnant woman in Mobile, Alabama that she can get an abortion in Illinois. And yet, they demand to be allowed to tell anyone to drink bleach if they catch COVID.
Their entire free speech crusade is a lie. And it’s a damned lie because it is meant to inoculate their propaganda by politicizing truth itself. Today is Saturday. But if a Democrat says so, it’s not to be trusted. Politicizing truth makes it possible to get away with any lie.
Trump is on trial now. It’s a criminal trial. He’s already been found civilly liable for rape and defamation and business fraud. Instead of talking about that, Republicans hold hearings into what they call the Biden crime family. Never mind there’s no evidence of any Biden crime. Never mind that when they produce a supposed witness to a supposed crime that witness turns out to be a Russian spy.
For today’s Republicans Mar-a-Lago, is the southern White House. It isn’t. It is a golf course where Mr. Trump pretends to win every tournament. In the real White House, national security documents are securely stored and subject to strict protocols. In Mar-a-Lago, national security documents are stored in a bathroom and shuffled around to protect them- not from foreign spies, but from the US the government.
Last week the Speaker of the House made the trek to Mar-a-Lago to announce an important new piece of legislation. Never mind that there is no actual bill. Never mind that the important idea behind this non-existent legislation- that only citizens should be allowed to vote in our Presidential election- is already the law of the land. The purpose of the meeting was just to lie and tell Americans that foreigners are talking their votes. In fact, the only foreigners impacting the election are Russia and China, who are interfering on behalf of Mr. Trump for the purpose of making the world safe for dictators.
Those foreign efforts have been far too successful as the GOP has become the party of autocracy. It’s gotten so blatant that Mike Turner, a Republican House member from Ohio went on CNN to say his colleagues were parroting Putin’s talking points on the House floor.
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to America last week to remind us of our essential role in the world. He spoke to a joint session of Congress and said, “The United States policy was based on the premise that humanity does not want to live oppressed by an authoritarian state, where you are tracked and surveilled and denied from expressing what is in your heart and on your mind. You believed that freedom is the oxygen of humanity. The world needs the United States to continue playing this pivotal role in the affairs of nations. And yet, as we meet here today, I detect an undercurrent of self-doubt among some Americans about what your role in the world should be.”
He was too polite to call it by its real name. It isn’t self-doubt. It is the axis of Russian propaganda and GOP authoritarianism. It’s the constant lying that politicizes truth itself… The lie that voting no longer matters because it is rigged… The lie that Russian expansionism is a response to NATO rather than a plan to re-establish its old empire... The lie that Mike Johnson has told America for six months as he waits to put a Ukraine funding bill before the House.
The path to this moment was paved by what is supposed to be the least political branch of government. John Roberts is our era’s Robert Tanney. Tanney led the Supreme Court from 1836 to 1864. Roberts has been chief justice since 2005. Like Tanney, Roberts is captive to a minority power intent on dominating the majority of Americans and willing to pervert our democracy for its own ends.
Tanney gave us the appalling Dred Scott decision. Roberts gave us the appalling Citizens United case, plus a variety of decisions that collectively undermined the Voting Rights Act. The Roberts Court stripped women of the right to make their own reproductive decisions. It told governments across America that, despite the carnage, they could not sensibly regulate guns. If there was one exception to the direction of Roberts the court, it was to legalize same sex marriage, but Chief Justice Roberts dissented in that opinion. These decisions undermined our rights, the rule of law, the resiliency of our democracy, and faith in our institutions.
If Donald Trump styles himself, and he does, as a kind of second coming, the John Roberts is reprising the roll of the Baptist who prepared the way. But there is no truth here that will set us free, only lies.