THE BIG LIE
WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
George Orwell, from the book 1984
Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth, is a law of propaganda: Attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels
President Trump is known for lying. Fact Check clocked him with over twenty thousand lies during his four year term as president. The country became accustomed to the lying, expected it and factored that into the information they were getting from the President. Things like “up is down” or “two plus two is five”. Annoying but little harm done.
That is until the BIG LIE, the lie that he had won the 2020 election in a landslide and it had been stolen from him. The building of the BIG LIE began in the summer of 2020 when Trump proclaimed there was no way he could lose the election except by fraud or cheating by the Democrats. The main culprit of election fraud would be mail in voting. This set up the notion that regardless of the outcome of the election, Trump would remain in the White House for another four years.
According to the election preliminary results, Biden did win the election convincingly so Trump moved to plan B of the BIG LIE. Plan B was devoted to lawsuits charging fraud and illegal actions by state authorities. Over sixty lawsuits were filed. One minor lawsuit concerning voter monitors that didn’t affect the vote count was won by Trump lawyers.
Having not convinced the courts, including the Supreme Court, that there were no irregularities or fraud that would affect the outcome, Trump went to plan C, which were attempts to change the Electoral College results. He made calls to state officials in several states and implored them to change the states electoral votes to favor him without meaningful success. During this time Trump in an hour long recorded phone call with Georgia officials, asked, pleaded and threatened them to come up with enough votes for him to win the Georgia vote. It was the only authenticated case of fraud in the 2020 election.
Plan C was not successful so Trump went to plan D, which was an attempt to dispute the certification of the electoral votes of certain states by congress on January 6, 2021. Over a hundred Republican representatives and ten Republican Senators pledged to support Trump’s dispute of the certification of the electoral votes. That was a significant number of legislators but not enough to change the results. This would have caused hours of meaningless debate but not the outcome.
As a last ditch effort, a rally to occur near the White House on the morning of January 6, 2021 was promoted where the president, a member of his family, Giuliani, and others spoke, amplifying the BIG LIE, exhorting the crowd to march on the Capital where congress was in the progress of certifying the election.
The aroused crowd dutifully marched to the Capital of the United States of America, found it surprisingly accessible, broke in and took possession of the building. The members of congress, the Vice President and staff were able to take cover, and avoid being harmed by the mob. The mob continued occupation of the capital for hours during of the afternoon of January 6, 2021. Finally enough security personal were able to assemble to clear the mob from the capitol building. During the afternoon the president watched the carnage on TV and did nothing; not unlike Nero being propertied to have played a fiddle as he watched Rome burn.
That was when the bubble that had been the BIG LIE burst. This had not been one of those inconsequential lies. The BIG LIE threatened the United States democratic form of government, it’s constitution.
What I don’t understand is how so many public figures, such as legislators, can condemn the mob take over the capital, and still support the BIG LIE. Neither do I understand why so many of the general public continue to believe the BIG LIE. Do they really believe it? Do they not believe it, but want to believe it? Do they profess to believe it because of peer pressure or to maintain a good standing with people in authority or with people who can help or harm them financially or physically?
I don’t know the answer to those questions but I do believe our democracy is worth doing whatever has to be done to preserve it. As Churchill is credited with saying, “Democracy is the worst form of government possible except for all others.”
If the senate does not convict, I believe our democracy is in rewal danger.
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