The Big Lie

It used to infuriate me when my mother told me to do something “because I said so.” Most of the time there was no reasoning with her dominant position. It made me feel helpless and unable to argue my own case. She never felt she had to provide a logical explanation or facts to support her position. It became the truth because she said it was.

This same inability for me to apply reason in the face of irrationality is what I’m again feeling about The Big Lie. Trump continues to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He started laying the groundwork for this lie well before anyone went to the polls. I’m assuming he did it primarily because he couldn’t bear the humiliation that would come from an election loss. He actually said that he could only lose if the election were rigged. After all, he is not a loser. He’s believed that his whole life. He’s rich . . . doesn’t that prove it?

First of all, who says something like that? Of course you can lose an election if more people vote for the other guy. Second, who believed The Big Lie before Trump started promoting it? It’s not as if widespread election fraud was uncovered. Regardless how hard they looked, no one found more than a handful of problem ballots among the millions cast. The Big Lie is something Trump made up out of thin air because he couldn’t face losing. Over two centuries of presidential elections have taken place in this country and not a single candidate has ever claimed that they didn’t win because the election was somehow stolen or rigged. Not a single losing candidate refused to support the peaceful transition of power.

Most amazing are the roughly seventy million people who are willing to drink Trump’s Kool-Aid without a shred of credible proof of election malfeasance. Yes, election officials of both parties in every state have verifiable evidence that the election wasn’t stolen, but because Donald Trump says it was, millions are willing to believe him. Don’t they realize that the guy spewed over 30,000 verifiable lies while in office? He’s a liar. He cheated his business partners and subcontractors because ethics in business is for suckers. Paying no taxes to support the functioning of the very government he headed is smart, in his opinion. Let the little guy pay the taxes, because if he were smart, he’d be rich himself. According to Trump, taking advantage of people is something to admire and emulate. And it gets you women.

How much influence does this one pathetic man have? His base was willing to break into the Capitol for him. They were willing to threaten to hang his own Vice President. They proudly carried the battle flag of seditionists through the Capitol rotunda. Members of the GOP are willing to sell their souls and reputations to stay in his good graces. Is maintaining proximity to power an addiction they can’t control? Has the idea of public service completely vanished or is that only for suckers, too?

So when I hear retired generals or Republican congressmen or state legislators or just plain old citizens repeat The Big Lie, what can I say? They believe it because they want to and because Trump says so and that’s good enough for them.