Today, Paul Krugman writes, is the day Donald Trump's war on truth reaches its climax. During the campaign, Trump has told two big lies:
The first big lie is the claim that America is being menaced by hordes of “rioters, looters, arsonists, gun-grabbers, flag-burners, Marxists.”
Anyone who walks around the “anarchist jurisdictions” of New York or Seattle can see with their own eyes that nothing like this is happening. And the data bear out the obvious. One systematic study found that the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were overwhelmingly peaceful, and that “most of the violence that did take place was, in fact, directed against the B.L.M. protesters.”
So Trump wants Americans to be terrified of a menace that exists only in his imagination. At the same time, he wants us to ignore the very real menace of Covid-19.
And that's the second big lie. Trump claims that he has defeated COVID:
Trump wants Americans to believe that the pandemic — which killed more Americans last month than are murdered in a typical year — is fake news. We’re “rounding the corner,” he insists, even as infections and hospitalizations are rising at a terrifying rate. The news media is going on about “Covid, Covid, Covid” only because it’s out to get him. Doctors are inflating the reported death toll because they want to make more money.
Both lies are immensely destructive to both civic and public health. But he now plans to unleash one last big lie:
We all know what’s likely to come next: claims that he was robbed. He’ll claim that millions of people voted illegally — after all, he did that following the 2016 election, denying that he lost the popular vote. He’ll probably claim that millions of Trump votes were somehow discarded — after all, he has already made the false claim that ballots are being “dumped in rivers.”
And he’ll find a receptive audience. Professional forecasters have considered Biden the heavy favorite for a long time, but according to a late September Gallup survey, 90 percent of Republicans expect Trump to win. If he loses, our conspiracy-minded right will react with shock and rage.
The immediate result may very well be a wave of violence and property destruction — Trump supporters engaging in the behavior they falsely attribute to Black Lives Matter demonstrators. But that’s actually the part that worries me least.
No, the really big danger is that millions of our citizens will probably buy into an American version of the “stab in the back” myth that loomed large after Germany’s defeat in World War I, claiming the military was betrayed by the civilian government. And those voters may well end up choosing the G.O.P.’s next presidential candidate.
The best result would be to send both Trump and the G.O.P into the dustbin of history. After all, that should be where all lies end up.
Image: twitter.com
10 comments:
I saw photos yesterday of stores that were boarding up their windows and doors in fear of a violent aftermath following the election. I tried to remember if there had ever been anything remotely like this in America. Some claim the civil war was a directly triggered by the election of Abraham Lincoln. Has Trump brought America to that place again?
Our expectations that cast Biden as a savior are naive. We thought as much when Obama took the White House. What we learned was that a popular president cannot master a corrupt Congress bent on obstructing the executive for the sake of obstruction.
That's why the Republican Party has to go down with Trump, Mound. Whether Americans will be wise enough to see that necessity is an open question.
The problem that I perceive is that both the Dems and the Repugs are right wing parties, so the difference between then can only be measured in small degrees. I find it hilarious that the Repugs refer to the Dems as being left.
Kind of like the ReformaCons here in Canada calling the Libs a bunch of lefties. What primarily differentiates these current parties is that under Harper, they isolated any notion of being "progressive" and fully embraced the evangelical/anti-vaxer/anti-climate which limits their appealto the more moderate voter.
Biden is a centrist, Lulymay. But, if Trump gets his way, Americans will see him as a wild-eyed socialist. That's one of Trump's biggest lies.
It's 9 pm BC time, Owen and the US election doesn't look like it will be sorted out very quickly -- Trump is still pulling in a lot of votes and it is hard to tell just how many of the early ballots will actually get counted. Each state is a different fiefdom which different rules and THIS IS A FEDERAL ELECTION???? The more I learn about all the different "rules" regarding voting down there, the happier I am that we live in Canada.
Nov 3, 2020
@ Blogger The Disaffected Lib 12;27
Our expectations that cast Biden as a saviour are naive.
Saviour? He is a corrupt, hard--right, warmonger albeit not as warmongering as Hilary Clinton and some of the Republicans such as the late John McCain or the (presumably) living Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Has Cruz ever been seen in direct sunlight?
We can hope that Bide manages to bring a bit of sanity to Canada--US trade relations and perhaps some sense to other international relations such returning to WHO but given his current "brain trust" I would not expect a lot.
Internally, he and his Congressional allies may be able to bring a touch of rationality to the fight against SARS-CoV-2. He certainly, I hope, could not do worse than Trump and his collection of bumbling grafters.
I wonder if the Canadian Gov't has good plans for accepting another wave of refugees it things get nasty to the south of us?
As this insanity explodes, Lulymay, I am more and more grateful that we live in The Great White North.
I suspect that there will be lots of Americans seeking Canadian residency, jrk.
@ Owen 10:13
Google has been reporting an increase in "Where is the nearest liquor store?" & "How do I immigrate to Canada?" queries.
Re refugees, I was thinking more of an influx of vulnerable groups such as we saw with the Somali and Haitian waves after Trump was elected.
The world is awash in refugees fleeing from oppression, jrk. It's understandable why we might face a flood of American refugees.
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