America's Conscience Corrupted
Truth is Dying In This Most Awful of Elections
This one got to me Sunday while watching Face The Nation…
64% of Trump Voters approve of the outright lie the Orange One is inflicting on America and specifically the people of Springfield, Ohio who he’s demonized since the debate.
“We have told those at the national level that they are speaking these things that are untrue,” Springfield’s Republican Mayor Rob Rue told The Wall Street Journal last week. So how do Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance respond? “…repeated and doubled down on,” says the Mayor.
A New York Times guest column by Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine, a Springfield area resident, shamed the MAGA lies. DeWine defended the Haitians: “They are there legally. They are there to work.”
It hasn’t changed MAGA minds.
J.D. Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash on September 15, “The media had paid no attention to migrant problems in American cities until Donald Trump and I started talking about cat memes. If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”
That is another Vance lie. There’s been plenty of truthful reporting about a broken immigration system. It just doesn’t fit he and Trump’s racist and race-baiting narrative.
Stunning to me, the MAGA cultists are O.K. with the lies. Gotta get those “shithole country” immigrants outta here! They’re willing to do anything, apparently. And even after 10 years of the Mad King, this one shocked. MAGA, apparently = insanity.
A National Embarrassment
While the damage to Springfield – the arrival of White Supremacists and with it threats of violence – should be a national embarrassment, the damage to the psyche of people who believe in Trump and Vance is worse. Their hatred, their fear of immigrants, especially non-White immigrants, is so great, they’re backing his outright lie in hopes of scaring this criminal back into the White House.
64% of Trump voters say they believe the lie while 69% say Haitians eating pets is “probably true.” They appear to be in in complete denial of the consequences, with only 36% connecting the lie with making people fearful of immigrants vs, 65% of all voters.
Further just 29% think the lie makes immigrants feel unwelcome vs. 62% of all voters. An overwhelming 90% see the lie as necessary to focus the nation on their belief that immigration is evil and must be stopped.
Somehow, their conscience, has left the building. They’ve become as corrupted, maybe more so, then the convicted felon they support. We knew he’d do anything or say anything to get back in the Oval Office. But, the cult-like rewiring of MAGA minds was something I hoped, very naively, could be reversed. The CBS Poll tells me there’s no way.
And It Gets Worse…
As if spreading toxic misinformation about Haitians in Ohio isn’t irresponsible enough. The New Yorker’s Jonathan Blitzer reports MAGA “alternative facts” now link immigrants with the coming Trump charges of a stolen 2024 election.
“….white anxiety about a diversifying country has become one of the Party’s greatest assets,” Blitzer write. “This spring, when the House Speaker, Mike Johnson, said that ‘illegals’ were voting and Democrats were abetting them, he was forced to admit that he had no real evidence. But, he said, ‘we all know, intuitively.’”
So, there it is. Trump’s insurance policy against losing is to claim the election was fixed. Only this time he won’t blame electronic machines and vote coumtimg. The culprit will be, you guessed it, Haitians and other non-White immigrants snacking on your cat and voting illegally.
When in doubt, play the race card…and I guess, the pet card. Scare the bejesus out of White folk. That he can still do this and get away with it is just….. there are no words.
Meanwhile, In State 48…
The MAGA grip is as tight as ever. A New York Times poll out September 23 shows Trump with a five-point gap over Harris in Arizona. That’s a lot of voter flipping for the Dems to make up. Why haven’t Harris and Walz, with multiple Arizona visits and huge ad buys, at least reached even with Trump-Vance?
Besides the effective race baiting, I blame Joe Biden’s absolute ineptitude the past two years addressing inflated grocery and fuel prices. Joe never figured out his expansion of semi-conductor manufacturing doesn’t offset a $75 fill-up and a $6 loaf of bread and a median house price pushing $500,000.
Also, Biden’s failure to take the border situation seriously, allowed the MAGA misinformation machine to brand it a “crisis” and an “invasion.” They brainwashed the country into believing wild-eyed immigrants are ambushing Arizonans at traffic lights, handing out free fentanyl on street corners, and stealing their jobs. I may have to strangle the next person who, when I tell them I live in AZ, asks me, “Are you o.k. with all the immigrant crime?”
My answer: “Yeah, I’m very O.K. because the “crisis” and “crime” are a freaking lie! What I’m not OK with is Arizona’s collection of insurrectionists currently in office plus the slate of MAGA candidates with eyes on capturing Maricopa County government. That’s really f***king scary. And, by the way, when are you applying for those jobs doing landscaping and picking lettuce? After we ‘mass deport’ all these hard-working immigrants, you’ll enjoy doing that in 110 degrees.”
So, Now What?
Well, we definitely need to amplify the truth and the facts, while calling out MAGA’s alternative facts and their messengers.
Arizona’s MAGA slate includes:
Three members of Congress. Two, Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar, were architects of the January 6th insurrection. The third, freshman Eli Crane, is infamous for using the racist term “colored people” in a House debate on DEI in the Armed Forces. Makes you proud, huh.
There’s state Senator Wendy Rogers who regularly uses her social media platform to cheer on White Supremacist talking points and a few Nazi slogans.
A likely state senate winner in November is Q-Anon’s Mark Finchem, a prolific 2020 election denier and a face in the crowd on January 6th. He’s back after losing the race for Secretary of State to Adrian Fontes in 2022.
Let’s not forget Arizona Senator Anthony Kern, under indictment as a fake elector, also present on January 6th. That’s his mug shot.
But wait, there’s more. Among Trump’s legislative power brokers is state Senator Jake Hoffman, yes, another fake elector. Hoffman was the subject of Washington Post investigation identifying him as the operator of a troll farm who used local teenagers to spread misinformation throughout Arizona. That’s his mug shot.
Another fake elector, Turning Point USA’s Tyler Bower spews hate and Christian Nationalism on social and YouTube channels. A mug shot as well.
Arizona state legislator Justin Heap, a 2020 election denier, knocked off high integrity Republican Stephen Richter in the primary for Maricopa County Recorder. His promises to “reform” elections follow the MAGA blueprint for voter suppression and operational dysfunction.
Finally, there’s former TV anchor Kari Lake, who trails in the U.S. Senate Race to Ruben Gallego, but is another prolific spewer of hateful falsehoods targeting immigrants.
These are the MAGA standard bearers in Arizona. Make sure you know who they are as you fill out your ballot. Putting them in office is simply irresponsible,
What To Do About The Springfield Lie?
Yeah, I don’t have a solution for that one. The very question increases my concern of a coming Trump dictatorship. It’s crystal clear MAGA is capable of unthinkable things.
The Springfield Lie, abhorrent on its face, hearkens to the so-called “ordinary Germans” of the Nazi era. Author Daniel J. Goldhagen describes them as the “willing executioners” of Hitler’s Final Solution writing “The German perpetrators, namely those who themselves killed Jews or helped to kill them, willingly did so because they shared a Hitlerian view of Jews, and therefore believed the extermination to be just and necessary.” (my italics)
Just hold the phone on telling me Trump is a long way from Hitler. Let’s remember the Hitler of the 1920’s and 30’s was a long way from actually carrying out his Final Solution. Yet he signaled it in his writing and speeches. His rise to to power unlocked the murderous antisemitism that turned ordinary Germans to genocide. It took him decades to pull off his life’s work of killing millions, but ultimately, he did it.
The Trumpian view extends back several decades as well. He calls immigrants murderers and rapists, and pet eaters, and sub-human, and illegal voters who will deny him the throne. So his demon lies and their demon consequences may not have killed anyone…yet. But, they are justified and supported, at least among two-thirds of Trump voters. That “ordinary” Trump voters would agree with his dark and hideous rantings is truly sick. Their acceptance in the face of contrary fact demonstrates that like “ordinary Germans” they are completely capable of getting to the next step: directing violence against immigrants.
So, what to do about the Springfield Lie? Call it out. Then vote and make sure your passport is up to date.