Here you have it. The greatest threat to democracy:
Democracy is based on rule of law, which requires a shared truth (a functioning public sphere). Fascism, to thrive, must destroy the common factuality so that myth can take hold.
Trump walked out of the 60 Minutes interview in frustration because he has only one way to win: He lies, and everyone repeats the lie. He gets frustrated when people won’t repeat or accept the lies.
The way Trump spends his time makes perfect sense when you understand that his idea of “governing” is to control the flow of information. He never had the desire (or ability) to control the pandemic.
We learned this tactic from Orwell’s 1984. Leaders like Trump manufacture fake crises (like invaders at the border or Antifa or the latest Qanon nonsense) because they can’t (and don’t want to) solve real problems. That’s why Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.
Two key lies launched Trump into politics: Birtherism and “I am a successful businessman.” It worked! He lied. People repeated the lies. Then enough people believed them. He literally has no other way to “govern” or campaign.
This is nothing new. It’s as old as written history. In the middle ages, one of the lies was Jewish blood libel.
Want to go farther back? Let’s talk about Darius I of Persia (522 BCE to 486 BCE) He’s sort of like the original Donald Trump. He had his “life story” chiseled into a cliff. If we believe Darius’s account of his own life, he never suffered a single defeat or setback. He singlehandedly killed each of his enemies. Moreover, the gods declared themselves on his side. (Of course)
Never fear. In about 18 months (sometime in 2022) my book on the history of disinformation and how it destroys democracy will be published by Macmillan. Yup. 2022. So I’ll just annoy my publisher by tweeting and blogging entire manuscript over the next few years.
And now, some questions from the Ask Teri tab:
Q: I keep hearing that Trump voters prefer him on the economy because they have derived some benefit from his changes. What has he achieved for the economy? I guess I am missing something.
I think this is the “her emails” tactic. The sheer repetition of “her emails” caused the made-up non-crime to sink so deeply into the public consciousness that the majority of Americans thought Hillary Clinton actually committed a crime (she didn’t). Even people who knew there was no crime or wrongdoing felt a nagging doubt.
It’s also been argued that people give credit for the economy to whoever happens to be president, which might also be true. I suppose this is just too complicated: “We had peace and prosperity through the 1990s when Clinton was in office, then a recession and sub-prime mortgage debacle toward the end of the G.W. Bush years, then prosperity after a few years of Obama until a few years into Trump’s administration when things crashed.” It won’t fit into a soundbite.
I suspect there’s a combination of both. Trump repeatedly takes credit for the economy, so people give him credit. 🤷♀️
Q: What happens when a presidential candidate dies either prior to election day, or prior to inauguration day? And what happens if voting has already begun (like now) and one of the candidates dies? has this ever happened?
If the nominee dies during the election, new ballots cannot be reprinted, so the party (following its own rules and procedures) announces the replacement ticket. Should Trump die before the election, I assume the ticket would be something like Pence / Haley. If the president-elect dies after the election but before the inauguration, the vice-president-elect is sworn in as president.
Q: Can you also opine on whether the founding fathers ever considered whether the Supreme Court should have any representative requirements? 5 or 6 of them are catholic and not one represents the ~25% of the population who don’t identify as religious? if the Supreme Court is going to have the final say in any critical legal matter it seems to me that its validity is dependent upon the citizens knowing that every major group/ideology was represented in those deliberations.
There was never any idea or theory that the Court should be representative. Remember, when we started only elite white men could vote, so only elite white men were Supreme Court justices. It wasn’t an issue. The Supreme Court justices are supposed to be highly qualified and well educated lawyers. The idea that they would be selected for their political views is not how it’s supposed to be.
The problem we’re experiencing with the Court began in 1954, when the United States Supreme Court overturned Plessy v. Fergusson and declared segregation unconstitutional. “Conservatives” were enraged. Throughout most of our history, the Supreme Court was extremely conservative. Then came the Warren Court, which, beginning in 1954, really shook things up. Through the 1960s the Court issued rulings that reined in police brutality and recognized that people who are arrested have rights. When the Court decided Roe v. Wade, the right-wing snapped. They’ve been driven by a single goal ever since: to regain control of the Court.
It’s been suggested that McConnell is stalling the relief bill now so that the Republicans can make a hard pivot back to austerity under Biden. Would love to hear your thoughts.
That would not surprise me one bit. McConnell and his pals do not care who is hurt or who suffers as long as they maintain a hierarchy with themselves at the top.
Q: My question is, how do we Democrats stop or weaken Trump’s power over the GOP? my daughter is infected with his poison and it scares me. Please let us know what we can do to stop this evil manipulative power that is so destructive.
This is the question of the hour. In fact, it’s such a big question that it will need its own blog post. Probably several. Once Trump is out of the White House (and we can breathe again) we need to look at how people fall into the grip of disinformation machines and how we can get them out. Solutions are hard to implement because the problem is woven into the very fabric of our society. It’s a deep problem and solutions will have to take a long view. I’ll be writing more about this.
