It has become glaringly obvious that both Republican politicians and Republican voters are poised to blame their own great mistake on Donald Trump’s consummate artistry as a con man. Even some Democratic operatives seem willing, in media statements that sound like subconscious magnanimity, to give them a pass for their foolish and completely irresponsible support for the most dangerous President in American history. Trump’s public falsehoods, both outright lies and ignorant assertions of fact, numbered well into the thousands long before he even declared for what would become his first political office. But his convenient estrangement from the truth, combined with personal visions of accumulated wealth and power, enticed Republican up-and-comings to throw all cautious reasoning to the wind. From the big tax giveaway to the upper two percent, to the wrecking of American foreign policy and the turning of blind eyes to Putin’s bold moves, to the thoroughly inept handling of the Covid plague, the Republican legacy during this administration has been less than abysmal. Though likely there are positive motives behind the Democrats’ offering of a fig leaf, many of us want the memory of this debacle to live on so that future generations cannot fall back onto the excuse of the demagogue’s irresistible con. Few such assertions could be further from the truth. Our Republican brothers and sisters were quite ready and willing to “blow it all up”. We must ask, therefore, what in their nature and motives led to this.
Throughout my 71 years of life, but especially those as a student and later as a teacher, I’ve experienced a disturbing phenomenon that, I believe, partially explains their dubious choices. I’m referring here to the willing tolerance, virtually a veneration, of the bullies in our society. No matter that they often are bozos with few skills and little intelligence, the blow-hards seem to command respect through our own unconscious fear. Few will admit to that, yet every three or four years I witnessed the election to class office of students whose only claim to leadership was their ability to intimidate and unnerve their fellow students, who seemed to feel the need to pay tribute by voting for them. At the elementary, middle-school, and high-school levels, of course, the consequences of such choices are mitigated by teachers and administrators who prevent things from getting out of hand. But at the adult level, the situation can degenerate into the despicable display of bullying and name-calling we saw in early 2016 during the Republican primary season debates on tv. After every one of those debates, Republican presidential candidates who had acted civilly and without malice toward their fellow candidates were judged, by the Republican base, as weak and unworthy of their support. Substance meant nothing, the appearance of “strength” everything. In this way Mr. Trump slandered his way to the top of the Republican pack and later, largely with his epithet of “crooked Hillary”, went on to bully his way to the Presidency.
We have allowed the con “artists”, of course, to proliferate beyond all control in the institutions of our society. From the purveyors of goods and services that are either unnecessary or even harmful to us, to the fake-religion advocates who would have us believe they are necessary to our individual salvation, we are besieged by an army of deceivers who fill our mail boxes, commandeer our telephones, and bully their ways into our lives. Too often, we feel powerless and simply give in. When we do rebel, we are told by our Republican leaders that these are merely side effects of “laissez faire” capitalism and that they cannot intervene. What they really mean is that protecting the elderly, the poor, the ill, all the vulnerable elements of our nation, is simply not in their own selfish interests of power and wealth. In this way they feel little compunction in repealing regulations that help protect us from climate harm, in repealing the Affordable Care Act that protect those with pre-existing conditions, and in refusing to mandate the wearing of masks or the lockdown of specified hot spots that would help protect everyone from the Coronavirus plague. All in the name of “freedom”.
In Missouri, our own Governor Parsons, the bozo appointed after the sex-and-blackmail scandal of the elected Eric Greitens, continues the tradition of cowardice and do-nothingism. As fatalities from the pandemic multiply in our state, we are told our freedom to be tragically foolish and to put others’ lives in dire jeopardy will never be curtailed. And Missourians show little promise of turning things around, have remained largely stagnant in their pattern of political support for conservative diatribe. Indeed, Republican voters in our “Show Me” state have shown themselves to be as gullible, in the face of such bumbling con-artistry, as naive teenage girls at spring break. Our own Josh Hawley and Jason Smith, toadies for the Trump Administration, push a “law and order” agenda that is merely a deflection from the real problems at hand. As long as they remain in office, the bullies, the bozos, and the con artists will continue to dominate our lives.
Sam J Duckworth
Oct 21, 2020
duckworthsam 