When Americans have occasion to examine themselves with any retrospective clarity, Donald J. Trump’s embarrassing four years as Resident Clown in the White House will go down as the “Big Lie”. From the moment of his first appearance on the stage of Republican presidential nominees, his roller-coaster performance has been an unparalleled deceit. And why should it not? Trump was on stage as an 2-bit entertainer from beginning to end. The only thing he truly adores about the presidency is the entitlement to public attention. It need not even be adulation. And it certainly wasn’t for the “power”.
As far as the power theme goes Trump essentially relied on whomever played the fiddle with him; and then he delegated the rest to his minions – basically removing himself from any other power than the belief that he was always centre-stage. And he was! His celebrity was buoyed by incessant Tweets or daily absurdity which so entranced the public media.
The Big Lie
The first remarkable instance of deceit was Trump’s arrival on the national political scene. Trump was an immediate reminder that running for election is “not for everyone” – which is to say, if you’re not solely convinced by pension or emolument opportunities, there’s more than a good chance you have some issues with the untold afflictions of public employment.
- We won in a landslide – Wrong, the win was an accident of the Electoral College. Trump got nowhere near the popular support of Hilary R. Clinton.
- The greatest inauguration ever – Wrong, the aerial photographs of Trump’s and Obama’s inauguration clearly show Trump had nowhere near the attendance.
- Build that wall – Wrong, never happened.
- Mexico will pay for it – Wrong, just wrong. This deceit – like all the other’s of Trump – never relies upon any empirical evidence. Over his four years in office – playing at being the President of the United States of America – Trump had learned that in the theatrical vernacular one need only recite a full-throated line (or lie) to have it carry to the back of the room. It may be intercepted by fact-checkers in its trajectory along the way but the risk was worth the chance.
- Corona virus will just go away – Wrong, and his only concern was that he had the best medical service and vaccination when he fell ill.
- It was a rigged election – Wrong, this particular lie varies between election rigging and election fraud (from the most outlandish resources) none of which was proven either empirically or in a court of law of the highest jurisdiction. The patent – and noticeably embarrassing – feature of this lie is that if it were adopted as true, it may have meant the destruction of that tender thread of democracy and its expression by voting and the subsequent transition of authority.
Like most circus acts, Trump wasn’t alone for the presentation. His most vocal and demonstrable allies came from the oddest source; namely, people who had expressed a dislike of him such as Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham. Trump was however later joined by fresh recruits for the deceit; namely, Josh Hawley and Marjorie Taylor Greene (who among other folly advanced Jewish space lasers)
Marjorie Taylor Greene (born May 27, 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump, Greene was elected to Congress in November 2020 and sworn into office on January 3, 2021.
Greene has supported disproven far-right conspiracy theories such as Pizzagate and QAnon, as well as other unevidenced conspiracy theories including false flag shootings and 9/11 conspiracy theories. Before running for Congress, she supported the execution of prominent Democratic politicians and as a congresswoman equated the Democratic Party with Nazis. Greene also supported Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
During the Electoral College vote count, Greene was among a group of Republican legislators who unsuccessfully objected to votes won by Biden, despite federal agencies overseeing election security saying it was the most secure in American history. After falsely asserting Trump was elected in a landslide but the election had been stolen from him, Greene filed articles of impeachment against Biden the day after his inauguration, alleging abuse of power. The House of Representatives voted to remove Greene from all committee roles in response to a series of incendiary and violent statements that she had previously made. Eleven Republicans joined the unanimous Democrats in the vote on February 4, 2021.
The undeniable mendacity of Trump, Hawley and Taylor Greene – along with the support of the Republican party – epitomizes the unfortunate transition of American national politics to the pubic arena between the modern day Christians and lions, between honour and appetite, between cerebral and visceral. It was pure entertainment! And the truth was the least of concerns. What mattered only was putting on a good show. The groundlings had assembled and wanted their money’s worth!
The theatre of Shakespeare’s day was attended by all, was inexpensive, and was known to be an incredibly good time. Surrounding the stage was the lower “pit” where the “groundlings” (or lower classes) congregated and above, octagonally surrounding the pit, were the stalls reserved for the upper classes.
The silence of the Republican elite in this process is deafening! They are universally unwilling one way or the other to commit themselves to the lies or their denial. It is a subterfuge of Olympic degree. The Republicans have already proven by the words out of their own mouths that the deceit of Trump is perfectly digestible when considered in the expanded model. The deceit is the key to re-election. It has become thoroughly tolerable for that reason alone. And some politicians may go so far as to opine that it’s what the people wanted. Thus have the merits of the issue become estranged from its means. Veracity thus confounded by political ambition is a thin thread by which to connect to the masses. It is thread which is bound to snap!