Never Underestimate The Power Of A Well-Crafted Lie
Sometimes the truth just can't keep up
The big lie is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth, used especially as a propaganda technique. The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, to describe the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." Hitler claimed that the technique had been used by Jews to blame Germany's loss in World War I on German general Erich Ludendorff, who was a prominent nationalist political leader in the Weimar Republic.
As much as I hate to incorporate Nazi Germany into a discussion of modern American politics, it was Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels, who championed the use of the “Big Lie.” His theory (true, as it turned out) was that if you repeat something often enough and with sufficient zeal, it would eventually be accepted as the truth.
Nowhere has this theory been more recently and effectively applied than in the 2020 Presidential election. Donald Trump undoubtedly knew early on that he was unlikely to prevail in November 2020, and so he began to prepare the ground, claiming that the only way he could lose was if the election was rigged. When he DID lose, his followers had been propagandized for long enough that they were willing to believe that Joe Biden had somehow actually stolen the election.
Despite numerous audits, recounts, and more than 60 court cases (all of which Trump lost, some embarrassingly), no evidence of voter fraud by the Biden campaign has been found. Yet, never being one to allow the truth to get in the way of a good story, Trump has continued to insist that Joe Biden stole the election. He insists that he won by a landslide, but for the massive voter fraud perpetrated by pro-Biden forces.
Of course, wanting something to be true when it categorically isn’t seldom makes something real and truthful.
So successful was Trump in convincing his supporters that Biden robbed him that thousands stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2020. Yes, a sitting President tried to stage a coup d’ etat to keep himself in power. Yet, a year later, legislators in red states are setting the stage for him to steal the Presidency in 2024 regardless of what the voters have to say.
To say that American democracy is in danger is in no way hyperbolic.
A very wise man once told me that a lie could circumnavigate the globe twice in the time it takes the truth to drag its sorry ass out of bed. This is what Donald Trump and his loyal minions have been counting on. They know America has a limited attention span and that they can do much of what they need to out of the glare of news cameras. So 2024 may see a brand new reality, one in which state legislatures can overturn election results they don’t like. And Republicans are the only party engaged in this sort of skullduggery.
Of course, all of this betrayal and dishonesty could be rendered moot if Congress passed the voting rights bills before it. It’s ironic that two Democratic senators- Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema- may ultimately be responsible for a system that could allow Donald Trump to steal the election in 2024.
Unfortunately, the Big Lie works, which is why Donald Trump and his supporters are devoting so much energy to perpetuating it. At some level, they KNOW there was no fraud in the 2020 Presidential election. They KNOW Joe Biden won the Presidency honestly and fairly, but they can’t stomach the possibility that their guy didn’t win.
And it would seem they’re willing to destroy our democracy to “win.” At best, it would be a Pyrrhic victory; no one can know what will come after our democratic system is crushed and rendered hors de combat.
Because to some folks, winning isn’t everything- it’s the ONLY thing.