The 45th president of the USA, Donald Trump, began his campaign as early as 2014 when he proclaimed that Barak Obama was not an American, but rather a Kenyan Muslim who had no rights to the presidency of the United States. Through skillful manipulation of this lie and the adroit use of his made-for-TV promotional design, he was able to gather millions of disgruntled Americans and create a tribe of angry and discontented followers. Added to these resentful discontents were millions of good American citizens who equated Trump´s barroom language with straight talk. Trump was then able to cobble these two groups into a solid political force that demanded attention. It is manifestly unique that an American presidential candidate could use a blatant LIE, as the basis of his campaign promotions. Then to point a bright spotlight not only on the candidate, but also on those millions of gullible individuals attracted to him. The attraction was not due to a unique or powerful political philosophy (for he didn´t have one), but rather to a LIE and language that drew those disaffected into a power base that, until recently, has remained constant. And now this lie has emerged into the basis for the destruction of America´s democracy.
To create a following, Trump used a lie to attract millions. And now, since the 2020 election has ended, Trump is still using the “Big Lie” as a term around which millions of voters have coalesced. The “Big Lie” is that the election was stolen from him. This is a lie, and it is well known to be a lie. Sixty federal and state courts, plus the Supreme Court have all declared it to be a lie, yet Trump and his 25% of discontents plus a few, not well-informed conservatives, who deny reality keep this lie alive. Trump started his 2016 campaign with a lie and now he is ending the Republican Party with a lie. That Trump is a LIAR is not any longer the issue; the issue is that Trump and 25% of the American voting population are undermining American democracy, destroying American world-wide leadership, and dooming future American generations to a Russian styled autocracy where liberty and freedom will only be historical attributes of a previous failed American experiment in democracy.
Looking back to the 2016 summer and the Republican platform brings uncomfortable cracks into our national protective armor. Russia had just taken Crimea and now her troops were slowly pressing into the Ukraine. In the USA Trump’s insistence that a Republican platform plank, one that supported NATO and the ex-Soviet Union Balkans nations, had the appearance of supporting Russia over NATO. As it turned out, my unarticulated fear was spot on. Anyone who has had a cursory study of American History and the Cold War would never succumb to a Russian initiative that would weaken American’s standing with world leaders. And yet anyone who has had this introduction to American History knows that since 1945 Russia has been jealous of American world leadership and would do anything to weaken that leadership. It has been shown time and again that in world hot spots like Southeast Asia or Latin America, Russian involvement has always been present and Russian involvement in these conflicts has always been diminished by American might and diplomacy. These events, added to the envy and hate of America at the end of World War II, produced an unending challenge for Russia, a challenge to weaken the American democratic system and its world-wide leadership. Trump’s demand to remove those Republican platform planks in 2016 directly led to a weakening of American leadership throughout the world.
Starting in 2019 I´ve been able to link many political events, and they all point to something amiss in Trumpland. In interviews with the FBI, Attorney General Sessions, Jerod Kushner, General Flynn, Campaign Chairman Manafort, and others denied any contact with Russians during the campaign, even when those contacts were ever so blatant and obvious indicate an intention to deceive. Why the denials? Now that Manafort and Flynn have both then indicted by Federal Grand Juries, and Manafort convicted, (he had contact and provided Russian intelligence with campaign data that without doubt was used to influence voters in key states), it is obvious that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. We cannot lose sight of the fact that these (Trump campaign-Russian) relationships weakened American worldwide leadership.
Taken individually, these acts would probably not have amounted to anything significant. But taken together, it becomes obvious that Trump, et.al have fallen prey to Russian lure of wealth and power. Trump disregarded and discarded many traditional American allies, Britain, France, Germany, and Mexico. To what end were these repugnant actions toward our allies? By creating a tiff with these allies, his approach and embrace of such authoritarian leaders and regimes as Putin of Russia, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, the House of Saud of Saudi Arabia, and of course, Revep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey went unnoticed. Trump’s actions demonstrated his infatuation with autocracy. He embraced authoritarianism while holding at bay, even challenging, our traditional allies. Trump’s behavior is the most detrimental act ever committed by an American leader. If left unchallenged, these actions will destroy American freedom and democracy.
Democracy around the world in under attack. During the past 20 years the number of democratic nations has decreased as nation after nation fell to the deceit, chicanery, and political power struggles. And now, the first time since the American Revolution, American democracy is seriously threatened. Trump wanted a nation like Hungary where Viktor Orbán´s rule does not depend on elections. Trump wanted to limit the power of Justice, limit the influence of traditions, create an atmosphere of doubt in which citizens doubted the news media, leaving only his word as the only source of truth and value. He wanted a nation where his Department of Justice spent more time protecting the guilty rather than prosecuting the guilty as it did under Bill Barr´s rule. He hoped to build a nation where millions of evangelicals felt victimized by cultural changes, an environment in which his word about abortion, homosexuality, gender issues, and even race would overcome the cultural achievements by today´s liberals cementing their support for his march to autocracy.
Since the 2916 election, Trump and his faithful band of criminals (the number reaches into the dozens of those arrested, indicted, and sentenced) have inundated the American populace with astounding evidence of malfeasance, fraud, and lies creating doubt in our American democracy. There is no wonder why the Russian president, Putin, has so openly supported the Trump presidency; never has Putin had such support in his battle against American democracy.
Without doubt, American democracy is under attack from Russia and others. But the real threat to American democracy does not originate outside our borders, rather from inside. That part of the American populace that chose to believe the Trump lie about Obama, whether through gullibility, resentfulness, or bigotry, have now fallen victim to the second big Trumpian lie that led to the January 6 insurrection. Sixty-eight percent of all Republicans now have accepted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Republican state legislatures have now passed laws that make it more difficult for the poor and minorities to exercise their Constitutional obligations and vote are indicators that the Republican Party no longer supports or believes in democracy. The great American experiment in democracy has now endured 245 years but is now facing its most powerful opponent since the election cycle of 1860. That opponent is domestic terrorism in the form of white supremacists and state Republican Parties.
Members of the Proud Boys, The Three Percenters, The Oath Keepers, and other militia groups have now been arrested and charged with violent acts that led to police officers´ deaths as these groups invaded the American capital while Congress was doing the business of the American government. For fear of bodily harm, Congressmen, Senators and their staffs were quietly and secretly led away from House and Senate chambers as the insurrectionists came plundering through the hallways. Both Republican and Democrat lawmakers witnessed these events, but Republican legislators are now claiming these events as tourist tours, denying the insurrection and the eminent dangers present on that day. Besides the evident danger to lives, the greatest threat was to American Democracy. Why are the Republicans so fearful of democracy? Because during the last seven general elections, the Republicans lost the popular vote in six. Rather than work to win elections at the polls, the Republican Party has opted to support autocratic and authoritarian means to stay in power, even destroying 245 years of democracy. Trump´s two big lies are false foundation on which the Republicans base their claim to authenticity and power. I believe that the American people, including many honest Republicans, will see through these false claims keeping the American experiment alive.
CubieSphere 