Throwing Rocks....

 Long ago, a fellow worker used to say that there were people you trust and people who you know not to trust. He further espoused that the worst people, the most untrustworthy of people, liked to encourage people to create chaos but were not honorable enough to do it from the front. Rather, they were the people in the back of the crowd who would "throw a rock and then hide their hand." This expression stuck with me as I could immediately see the truth it represented. It is bad enough for people to throw rocks in anger or frustration but if you are going to throw rocks at least have the integrity to admit you think it is necessary. There is nothing worse than throwing rocks and then acting like you didn't. 

Recently, we saw a whole group of people who actually believe they are patriots protecting their country and supporting the Constitution breaking into the Capitol of our government and threatening our elected representatives with bodily harm. There is a long list of people responsible for this action. First on the list of course is the people who carried it out. They should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Some of them are now experiencing that much to their surprise. This is the worst part. They are surprised. They believe they were doing the right thing. How it came to pass that such a large number of Americans can act in violence against their own government and yet believe they are protecting the Constitution is too important to pass over. 

Quite simply, these people have been lied to. They have consistently and carefully been fed a pack of lies for many years now. Fox news, talk radio, and all manner of right wing ideologues have been feeding them lies since the time of Reagan. Reagan started a lot of this with the "Welfare Queens" story that basically got him elected. It suited the narrative of a lot of southern conservatives still stuck in the Jim Crow narrative and it suited the narrative of corporate America who were then free to do what they really wanted, to lower taxes on the wealthy and corporate interests and do away with those pesky agencies specifically designed to protect the average consumer from the wealthy and corporate interests. 

We could go back further and find the roots of this movement but I don't have time here. Suffice it to say Reagan was the first one to use populism to work against the best interests of the average American. He was not the last. The Republican party and much of the Democratic party has been dominated by these interests ever since. Meanwhile, the right wing propaganda machine has grown unabated and unchallenged since they did away with the fairness doctrine and the concept that the American public owns the airwaves and they should be protected accordingly. 

All of this leads to the recent troubles at the Capitol. Donald Trump was the inevitable result of this propaganda machine. A populist who pandered to the worst instincts of several groups of bigots and racists while at the same time letting the corporate interest plunder the treasury. Right wing media supported him because he gave them power. Corporate interests supported him because he gave them money and power. The right wing Christian leadership supported him because they support whoever keeps them in their positions of power and influence and have no real honor themselves. There are exceptions to all of these of course. There was the Conservative wing that left voluntarily because they actually had the courage of their convictions. There was the occasional corporate leader who bailed on the Trump Agenda for the same reason and there were a few religious leaders who also couldn't stomach the lies and lack of moral character of Trump himself. 

After the recent insurrectionist chaos at the Capitol a lot of people are rethinking their support for Trump. More especially, even the right wing media who supported him are adjusting their positions. Most of right wing radio is still pushing the narrative of lies that Trump himself took from them. The current talking point is that a large portion of the American population believes the recent election was not fair or properly done. I have no doubt this is true but the simple truth is that they believe that because these same people have been continuously lying to them for many years now and have made them believe something that is plainly not true. These people who push the agenda through their very loud megaphones in the voting public's ear are the ones "hiding their hands" after throwing the rocks that set the recent unrest off. 

They weren't leading the charge that kicked in the doors at the Capitol but they were in the back yelling their encouragement and throwing rocks. Now they want to hide their hands. These are the people we need to take on. No one would believe the election was rigged if the people they trust to tell them the truth hadn't lied to them. The people who do believe this fallacy do so because they have had misinformation drilled into their heads for almost fifty years now by the far right media. 

I don't want to silence the far right media but I do want to require it to be responsible for the truthfulness of what they say. Yelling fire in a crowded theater is NOT protected free speech when there is no fire. At that point is is just a lie that causes great damage and destruction and there is no amendment designed to protect the people who do it. Throwing rocks is bad enough. Throwing rocks and then hiding your hand is much worse. 

The Foundation of the Assault on the Capitol

Like most Americans and was saddened and sickened by what I saw unfold in Washington yesterday. I wish that was the first time I have felt this way since Donald Trump was elected as president of the United States but it was not. I won't bother to go into all the details of the gradual slide from integrity and basic decency in our government that has occurred since Americans elected this man to the office. The record of his abuses is long and growing and I have expected nothing less since he was elected. The truth is that Donald Trump is a man without integrity and he has been this same man without integrity ever since he has been an adult. 

Integrity matters. Truth matters. It is impossible to conduct business, do research, run a government, or be a productive member of society if you don't respect the truth. It is the core principle that allows us to do anything worthwhile in this world. We can't intelligently discuss any subject without the basic understanding that people have to be willing to respect the truth. We don't learn from our mistakes without acknowledging they were mistakes, that takes a respect for and understanding of the idea that the truth is important. We don't advance knowledge in any field without respect for the truth. Scientists, Engineers, Teachers, Business Owners, and workers in every field have to respect the truth in order to come to agreement about what is fact and what is not fact. The basic concept is the same, either something is true or it is not. Either something is a fact or it is not a fact. 

Shortly into Trump's term we saw one of his inner circle express on camera that they have "alternate facts". That should have set alarm bells off everywhere that we were in serious jeopardy of losing our own government. We had somehow put people in charge of our government that believed there is such a thing as "alternate facts." There are facts and there are things that are not facts but there is nothing in between. Unless you are willing to accept that premise you are not a person who is capable of doing anything constructive. It really is as simple as that. 

There is a direct and inevitable path from that statement to what happened in Washington yesterday. For reasons having to do with power and control a large portion of one party of our two party system has lent itself to supporting the continuous and incessant lies of Donald Trump for four years now. This lying by him and his supporters has eroded the very foundations of our government to a dangerous level. The good people who were willing to look the other way and unwilling to confront the fact that he is a habitual liar with absolutely no respect for the truth saw the result of this inaction yesterday when a large group of insurrectionists violently invaded the very center of our national government and threw it into chaos. People died yesterday because Donald Trump is a habitual liar. He charged them up at a rally with yet another string of unfounded outright lies about the election and they violently assaulted Congress in session with his outright encouragement. They believe his lies because people who know they are lies have not called him on that fact. Members of his own party know they are lies but they have not had the courage to call him on it. Conservative media outlets intent on increasing their viewership support and ratings have also contributed to this problem by refusing to call Trump on his lies and giving him an outlet from which to spread them. 

A large segment of our population would not believe the lies of Donald Trump today if our leadership in Washington had been willing to call him on his lies four years ago. He would now be powerless and out of government and we would all be safer and better off for it. Mitt Romney was absolutely correct last night when he said the best thing we can do for people who believe this election was fraudulent is to tell them the truth. It wasn't. It's as simple as that. Judges all over this country have said it. State election commissions from largely Republican states have said it. Every single state where supposed improprieties were brought up has adamantly rejected the theory that the election was fraudulent. These were not partisan officials, there were the duly elected officials charged with regulating and organizing elections in their states. 

The reason that people still believe these lies is that Republicans, members of Trumps own party, have not called him out for what he is; a habitual liar and a man without the basic integrity to have the respect for the truth that allows him to be a functional member of society. It's not in their personal best interest to do so. If you care more about your own personal interests than being an elected official then you don't have the integrity required to be an elected representative. 

I watched my local representative, Mo Brooks, suggest it was time to "take names and kick ass" when he led off the same rally where Trump incited an insurrection yesterday that attacked and overwhelmed the Capitol. Trump promised to lead them there and then got in his limousine and went to the White House to gleefully watch the whole thing on TV. Mo Brooks meanwhile, tweeted out it was ANTIFA infiltrators who were doing the violence when everyone with eyes to see saw Trump supporters break out windows and physically invade the very chambers in which Congress was trying to do it's lawfully proscribed duty. It was the exact same people he had just a few hours earlier incited to riot yet he acted like these two event were unrelated. Unfortunately, Mr. Brooks is another example of an elected public official with little or no real integrity or respect for the truth. 

Mr. Brooks gets to live with his actions yesterday, as do the hopelessly and intentionally misinformed people who thought they were doing their duty by forcefully and violently shutting down our government. These were not ANTIFA infiltrators, they were red blooded Americans republican supporters of Donald Trump. They were incited to anger by a President and a group of his loyal supporters who have so little respect for the truth that they have actively assisted him in his propaganda efforts. 

The undeniable truth is that integrity matters. It especially matters when it comes to electing our leaders. Integrity is a basic requirement in that it is simply not possible for an elected official to be an effective public servant if they don't have integrity. It isn't the only thing that matters of course, but it is a prime requirement to start with. Hopefully, if we learn nothing else from the unmitigated disaster that has been the Trump era, we will have learned this.