The "lie" as primary crutch of tyranny

The 1100 pages of the “tax reform bill” have been read by no one. And yet, the bill is slated to be passed and signed into law this week.

The judicial system is being stocked (and stacked) with imbecile candidates, obvious dupes and pawns of the current administration.

The General Accounting Office’s “review” of the tax bill is declared irrelevant by the same people who appointed its members.

The president cozies up to Putin, both on the economy (a western world rise, nothing resulting from current administration policies) and on terrorism, while Republican American legislators wither under the weight of executive contempt.

The tax bill will allegedly inflate the deficit by some $1+ trillion, with support from former Republic deficit hawks, like Senator Corker, as the first step to the “necessary” gutting of Social Security and Medicare, as well as other social programs that sustain the poor.

Fox News talking heads like Sean Hannity, call for a “purge” of the FBI, including the removal of top staff in ‘handcuffs’, so corrupt is the agency, while the president welcomes accolades from Putin on the help from the FBI to thwart a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg.

Reports indicate that the General Services Agency (or a mole within the GSA) has released hundreds of emails from and to the trump transition team, without either a request or a subpoena from the Mueller team. Whether the agent(s) responsible for the release were attempting to undermine Mueller or the trump administration, no one really knows.

When asked about the difference between trump’s sexual abuse and Senator Al Franken’s, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, without a hint of irony or humour retorts, “Franken admits it, trump does not!”

Both underlying, and superimposed upon these dynamics is the persistent drum beat of lies, deception, dissembling, manipulation and the abuse of power. The cacophony of public voices no longer debates the merits of anything from a political theoretical, or an ideological perspective. Those in power, trump and his acolytes including Fox News, say and do whatever they please, without regard to the validity, the truth, the verifiability, or the concensus weight of their universe of “alternative facts”.

If one, including a public organization like the New York Times, the Washington Post, anyone including all opposing voices, has the temerity to challenge trump and his propaganda machine, that voice is deemed “FAKE NEWS”. It is as if there is a war mind-set that is controlling the Oval Office, the presidency, the Executive Branch of government, and the chief instrument/weapon/defence/offense of that war is defamation of both the content and the source of the information.

There is simply no one, no news outlet, no politician, no public servant, no foreign leader and no potential target that is immune from the potential assault, all in the name of the honour, dignity, tradition and reputation of the United States of America….with the exception of Vladimir Putin and his gang of oligarchs. And the release of the national security strategy yesterday emphasizes the trump world view, that everything, literally everything in his sight is a competition with supremacy being the trophy for the combatants. And trump’s trophy is seen as his personal triumph and, only secondarily the “status” of the United States.

And the LIE that is ‘baked into the cake’ of this nation’s government is so corrupting and so debilitating as to threaten the very institutions that comprise the history and tradition of what was once a symbol of an open, somewhat vulnerable and somewhat humble, if wealthy and even opulent nation. Under Obama, and even to a lesser extent Dubya, Clinton, Bush #1, Reagan, Ford, Carter, Kennedy and even Nixon to a limited degree, the American willingness to co-operate with allies, trading partners, and even opposing ideologues to a limited degree, laid down a path of some honour. Of course, there were military engagements that were both ill-advised and tragic; trade barriers that were irritants, international agreements and treaties which American governments declined (in their mis-guided motive to retain flexibility for their operatives who might just be crossing the lines of international agreements and national sensibilities)….but the façade of professional and even a degree of ethical propriety were somewhat respected, at home, and consequently by other nations.

Now, siding with White Supremacists, taking blatant racist immigrant/refugee policies and approaches, operating from a hubristic and unabashed sexist superiority perch, and quite literally defying empirical, verifiable and even
‘peer-reviewed’ evidence, this administration is a threat to the world of responsible citizens and leaders everywhere.

If Africa, it would be called a tyrannical dictatorship; in the not so distant past, it would be dubbed a ‘banana republic’ given the tone and the behaviour and the vacuity of its integrity. And the world watches, wonders, and hopes that sometime, somewhere, somehow, the American people will finally awaken to the un-gilding of the Gatsby lily…..and take their country back from these thugs.

When the nation and the world are bent into a mis-shaped and unrecognizable and twisted reality to serve the narcissism of a single leader, young people across the United States, and hopefully to a lesser extent around the world, will learn that their personal, private interests and their pursuit of those interests, while considering all others, including the public interest, as merely obstacles in the path to personal aggrandizement, is justified as legitimate, even tragically, morally and ethically valid.

Is anyone really surprised that the children of such a person will go to any lengths to secure “dirt” on a political opponent, even if that dirt’s source is a foreign enemy who is determined to undermine the democratic processes of the country his father seeks to rule. And it is “to rule” and not “to govern” that the trump father is determined to operate.

And even a grade school civics class student can and will distinguish between tyrannical rule and collaborative governing. The “big” and “permanent” lie can and will support only tyrannical rule, and therein lies the root of the disease that threatens to spread.