The recent reports that the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that the Russians not only interfered in the recent Presidential election, but interfered with the express purpose of getting Trump elected elicited this response from the Trump troops:
These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history. It’s now time to move on and “Make America Great Again.”
This statement contains an assertion that is demonstrably false — or, in simpler terms, a big fat lie. A list of the Electoral College votes for the 58 Presidential elections is at this link. Out of the 58 elections, the Electoral College margin of the winner was more than Trump’s figure in 45 of them. What Trump calls “one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history” was in fact one of the smaller Electoral College victories in history. Such Presidential luminaries as Herbert Hoover, James Garfield, and James Polk far outclassed Trump’s victory margin.
It is increasing clear that Trump’s proclivity to lie isn’t an accident. It’s intentional. It’s the same strategy frequently used by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, whether they be fascist or communist. It’s the “Big Lie” strategy, a term coined by Adolph Hitler in Mein Kampf:
in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
There’s no bigger lie than saying something that is easily contradicted by anyone with a laptop and rudimentary internet research skills. Big lies, fake news, just say anything, I’ll make my own facts, and my ignorant followers will believe them as long as I keep telling them how great they are and how mistreated they’ve been.
Now more than ever, it’s incumbent on the still-free press in America to ensure that Big Lies are called out. Unfortunately, even in the New York Times report about this statement, there was no mention at all that the “one of the biggest Electoral College victories in history” line was false. A reader of the article would be left thinking that, well, maybe it’s true … there’s nothing in the article saying otherwise. This, of course, is one of the purposes of the “Big Lie” strategy, to tire out the truth, to make it hard work to separate facts from propaganda.
This is scary stuff. This is something not seen to this extent in American politics. Trump’s constant lies are yet another step in the development of an American brand of fascism. We must not tire in our efforts to recognize and call out falsehoods, to hold on to the difference between truth and lies. It’s our first line of defense, and will be sorely needed the next four years.
Categories: Politics