Thursday, May 13, 2021

To Combat Lies, Silence Is Not Golden, It Is an Enabler

With few exceptions throughout the land, Republican officials have turned a deaf ear to anyone speaking truth. Hiding their identities behind a voice vote, GOP members of Congress shouted their expulsion of Liz Cheney from her House Leadership position Wednesday because she refused to accept an alternate Bizarro reality, because she refused to be complicit in Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud, because she preferred a party of ideas and principles over cult membership, because she put allegiance to country and Constitution above loyalty to a flawed leader. Because she refused to remain silent. 

We can fulminate forever on the evolution of the Republican Party and the masses of voters who have hitched their futures to a false god. 


All of that doesn’t explain why, why so many are caught up in Trump mania. What does it take for a lie to take hold as “truth?” Perhaps this Facebook posting originally from Jane Crosby Swanson, and reposted by Molly Brauer, an ex-colleague, offers some insight into herd mentality:


“When I was in seventh grade, our teacher put on a video and told us to take notes. Ten minutes in, she threw the lights on and shouted at Steven Webb Sladki, telling him he wasn’t taking notes and he should have been. But the thing was, Steve was taking notes. I saw it. We all saw it. The teacher asked if anyone wanted to stand up for Steve. A few of us choked out some words of defense but were immediately squashed. Quickly, we were all very silent. Steve was sent to the principal’s office. The teacher came back in the room and said something like, “See how easy that was?” We were reading “Anne Frank.” I started to understand. I just thought now was a good time to share this story. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that what you see with your own eyes isn’t happening.”


With our own eyes we saw, and with our own ears we heard:


Trump praise those who attacked the Capital; 

Trump refuse to accept the validity of the 2020 election despite repeated court decisions, many from judges he appointed; 

Trump refuse to publicly warn us about the severity and danger of COVID-19 even though he received private briefings about its devastating potential;

Trump accept the word of Putin over the findings of our intelligence agencies;

Trump order the evacuation of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Biden simply delayed it by several months;

Trump impose inhumane treatment on asylum-seeking families, the separation of young children, even those less than a year old and still breastfeeding, from their parents at the southern border;

Trump repeatedly call for infrastructure investment but never propose any concrete program;

Trump verbally abuse judges and elected officials who disagreed with him;

Trump plead with election officials in Georgia to “find” enough ballots to give him victory in their state;

Trump try to coerce the president of Ukraine to find political dirt on Joe Biden and his son Hunter in return for releasing financial support already voted by Congress. 


For all this and more too many Americans are conveniently forgetting or, just as bad, tolerating. Too many, especially Republican politicians, are remaining silent.


It is well and good that we remember the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller whose searing, emotional poem is one of the last exhibits at the U.S. National Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists):


“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

“Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”