Can Lies Make America Great Again?
I heard immortal words about American exceptionalism from an American intellectual thinker on CNN today. Paraphrasing him, he said as follows, with a healthy dose of refreshing realism, and an ample portion of chastened humility.
"We have to realize that we are not different from anyone else. The important thing about the (shining) city on the hill, is that you must climb that hill. You have to build that city."
That was Timothy Snyder, Professor of History, Yale University speaking.
I have not heard truer words from an American intellectual for a long time.
The MAGA Mob tearing down America while claiming to be making America great, do not even know how that shining city on the hill, that is America was built.
Starting from their MAGA Messiah, a purported billionaire who only pays $750 per annum in Tax whenever he chooses to pay at all, they have no skin in the game, other than the color of their skin and the stridency of their voices.
You will be surprised that the real people making America great do not make any noise at all.
It is empty riff-raffs who have nothing to offer, that are going about causing a bedlam because they were bested fair and square in the polls.
Voter fraud, voter fraud they chant, but they cannot provide any evidence of it.
Anyone who knows America well and how smart Americans can be when they put their minds to doing something, knows that nothing stays hidden in America for too long.
Almost two weeks after the January 6, 2021 fiasco at the Capitol, fresh videos of the insurrection are still emerging.
Two months after the 2020 Presidential elections, no concrete evidence of wrongdoings has surfaced despite more than 60 lawsuits filed and duly dismissed for lack of evidence.
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that there is nothing untoward about the last elections. Cries of rigging and voter fraud are nothing but a nothing-burger. Nothing has been shown as evidence because there is nothing to show.
The truth as I see it, is that the MAGA devotees, fully realize that their Messiah decisively, and comprehensively lost the last US presidential elections.
However, a post January 6, 2021 Pew Research Center public opinion poll found out that 68% of all Republicans polled stated that they believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential elections. Other opinion polls put that figure much higher, some as more than 80%.
If my suspicion is correct, and mark you, Americans are not stupid, why are the MAGA crowd apparently still in denial about the validity of the last presidential elections, going by the results of the opinion polls you may ask?
There are three mutually supporting and reinforcing reasons for this disconnect in my view.
The first is subliminally racist. The MAGAITES know there was no election rigging. What they are really saying in racist speak, is that they do not recognize Joe Biden as being validly elected as U.S. President because he relied on legitimate non-white votes for his victory over Donald Trump.
Implicit is their firm belief that Biden’s victory was achieved only because of support from non-white Americans who they do not recognize as true Americans. His election is therefore invalid for that reason and that sole reason alone.
The second reason is that accusing Democrats of cheating in cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Milwaukee with substantial black populations, is a pre-emptive strike to create conditions favorable for future voter-suppression efforts of blacks and non-white Americans.
The third reason is that denying the validity of the presidential elections gives one a perfect alibi for the violent venting out of pent-up frustrations. Afterall if you acknowledge that your man was beaten fair and square, what rationale do you have for violently attempting to overturn the election results as happened on January 6, 2021?
The irony is that white Americans, be they democrats or republicans know exactly why the MAGA crowd, refuse to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory as I have outlined above. For reasons of political correctness neither side, democrats nor republicans alike, can spell out the exact motivations for MAGA obstinacy as starkly as I have done here.
Like Timothy Snyder, one is left to wonder in what way and manner regurgitated petty lies about the conduct and outcome of the last U.S. presidential elections can make America great again.
However, I have a piece of advice for the American Homeland Security, Secret Service, and National Guard. They should leave no stone unturned in their efforts to protect President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris as well as all the top brass in the line of succession during the swearing-in on January 20, and beyond.
With the massive security fortification already in place in Washington DC, a breach of security can only come from within with collusion
I would pay particular attention to snipers, planted explosives, and drone attacks. However, it would pay to remember the fate of the assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and avoid a decapitation strike from within the ranks.
I believe that the whole world is praying for Americans as they contend with the new realities of living under a state of national bifurcation.
However, if Americans are as smart and as patriotic as one would suppose they are, then the American Senate should convict the MAGA Messiah, Donald Trump for egregious subversive conduct, unbecoming of an occupant of the most powerful position in the world.
If there are no lasting consequences for his infraction of the rules of responsible conduct, there will surely be a repeat performance, with irretrievable and irredeemable damage done to American democracy.
I am not a betting man, but I will stake everything I own on that certainty.
By Anthony Chuka Konwea, PhD, PE