~a column by Colleen O’Brien
I write this column because I believe that at this point in history silence about lies begets violence. So, I’m going to talk about Mr. What-a-Guy, again.
The Republicans say the Democrats lie, and the Democrats say the Republicans lie. I follow Fox News and MSNBC to see who’s lying most. Guess who told 19,127 lies in 1,226 days?*
If that doesn’t bother you, please vote for him on the things you believe are NOT lies. Your choice – any number of things are on record at Twitter.
Do you know the psychological axiom: “As soon as you speak an untruth, you believe it”? Joseph Goebbels, a Hitler guy, said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
Someone I’ve now known too long and too well must have had that read to him once and taken it to heart.
I am not black, I am not poor, I am not sick. I do not live in an elevator building. I do not have to take a subway. This means I don’t have it bad at all during this pandemic. Nevertheless, I am upset, anxious and dismayed.
I am upset that a man shot seven times in the back was not mentioned once during the Republican convention. Especially because this was a convention concerned about law and order.
I am dismayed that after asking and being denied use of the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah,” the Republican convention people used it anyway.
I am confused because they instructed us to watch the videos: the more violence, the more we need to be afraid of the Democrats. He who is presently in office is in charge, isn’t he? It is his follower who brought in a rifle and killed people in Kenosha, WI. As well as in Parkland and Pittsburgh and El Paso. The FBI reports that violence is instigated by white supremacists, white nationalists and the far right, by a far margin.
Instead of sending in camouflage-uniformed army troops, as our leader did in Portland, it might work if he listened to protestors and to Black families whose children have been murdered. I am aware that people who talk a lot don’t listen much. If this one would, he would learn that there are protests across the country where violence occurs; it is not just in cities with Democratic mayors, as he and his pretty mouthpieces concentrate on. And why is there violence? Listen.
They say that Biden wants to defund police. This is refuted on tape and in interviews dozens of times, so we may have to believe our lyin’ eyes. Biden said at the Democratic National Convention that he does not support defunding the police. He has said it lots. It is all on record from newspapers and broadcasts, like what the leader says is on Twitter. On record. Evidence of who said what. Why do the Rs lie about this? It is dispiriting to everyone, including those who support him. Who wants to be led by a liar? I know, I know – the Rs lie, the Ds lie. Watch MSNBC AND Fox, not just one of these outlets, and figure it out for yourself.
The Democratic platform has no plank that has anything to do with defunding police. The Republicans have no platform, period. Just a pageant of lesser luminaries on the conservative side, no Senate leaders speaking, no former Republican president. “Sad,” as he says a lot.
For the man who thinks he might be king, this IS sad. Maybe you are compassionate for him, like it was said in many ways at his convention that he is compassionate for you.
It is true that we are in a Republican realm right now, and the violence has not been stopped, it has increased. It’s odd that he’s running on this point because he is the one who’s been in office as the country has taken a dive. In nine months, the pandemic has not been slowed let alone stopped. It has increased by 6 million cases and as of this last Sunday 185,537 dead. It took five years of war to kill 400,000 Americans between 1941 and 1945.
We live in a country divided in part because the person who could be the leader won’t wear a face mask – we are divided by to-mask or not-to-mask! I haven’t decided if that’s petty, uninformed or lazy. How hard is it on you to wear a face mask? Unmanly? Ruins your lipstick? Oh, he said it’s this: “Hey, I like my face.” And then he lovingly stroked it.
Biden’s point is to work to lessen the impact of four historic crises that have not been addressed by the leader who has proved to us that he doesn’t think they’re important—the escalated pandemic, the growing economic crisis, the racial injustices that right this minute are ripe for repair, and accelerating climate change.
“Four crises, a perfect storm,” Biden said.
I would add to this the perfect storm of who is shooting whom and why, in cities run by both Republican and Democratic mayors.
I am anxious. The incumbent is blaming the other side for things he’s allowed to happen during this final year of his reign: his citizens [all of us, whether or not we voted for him] are banned from nearly every country in the world, his citizens have endured months of not enough aid for their loss of jobs and consequently soon to be loss of homes, his citizens are totally confused about how to go back to school, his citizens are dying because of lack of supplies, money and leadership in regard to the lethal coronavirus.
His own idea never to mention the death count in six months and claiming on March 20, “I don’t take responsibility at all” are true to him.
He does mention the economy quite a bit, but because he is relatively rich—not as rich as he wants or claims – he thinks the economy means the stock market. The economy, in reality, means a rather large section of the population he vowed to protect and defend, and we are watching prices rise like Gulf waters in Texas. It is scary, at least to a single woman on a fixed budget.
If you like him, fine. If you think he’s smart, decent and honors you as a female, as a black female in particular, as a Gold Star parent, as a farmer, as someone using prescription drugs (he said he signed something to change that), if you believe all these things, buy a yard sign. If you like him because he can say it like it is and he doesn’t pussy-foot around (“pussy” here means a cat), that he drives his golf cart on the green and lowballs his golf score, that his world leader friends are all dictators and our long-time allies do not trust him, well by all means, talk him up.
I know that all presidents are not great all the time, that many of them have lied, just like all humans lie, although most of us don’t do it 23.8 times a day;* they’ve taken us to war, ignored racial problems, not supported women and children and hauled out the big guns against protestors. But I do like to think we get better, not worse.
So much for that Pollyanna gibberish.
But the following is not nonsense: Once in that oval office, the guy is responsible for all of us. I know this leader has no interest in me because I’ve heard him say often enough how he hates Democrats and loathes the Press. So I am, in fact, twice the enemy.
It would be difficult for a Democrat writer to think well of a man with this nature. Let alone vote for him.
*WAPO June 1, 2020
*The Guardian August 28, 2020
*Forbes May 5,2020
