The GOP has made lies the center of its political survival. The costs are too high.
In the hours following the Jan. 6 insurrection, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney addressed Congress and the world, describing what he called the duty and burden of leadership when he said, “The best way we can show respect to the voters who are upset is by telling them the truth.”
Truth telling has become a lost art in the Trump era, both in his administration and in the Republican Party. For the greater Republican Party, this refusal to tell the truth has been a clear act of political survival. An effort to curry favor with a tyrant, to stay in the good graces of the mob that he rules. A mob that we now know will call for the hanging of anyone who dares to defy their leader. Telling the truth is a dangerous undertaking for Republicans, but that is a poor excuse.
Let me tell you the cost of not telling the truth. Let me tell you what lying for years upon years has done to this country; and let me tell you personally. Throughout his life, I have watched my brother transition from a Reagan Democrat, to a compassionate conservative, to what Jennifer Horn of the Lincoln Project referred to as a member of the Army of the Aggrieved. My brother was not in Washington on Jan. 6, and for that I am incredibly thankful. But the cost of the lies put forth by conservative media, by so-called journalists who’s only guiding principle is notoriety and a presence at the Trump table, is the destruction of my brother’s family.
When faced with master manipulators who are motivated by power and greed, when subjected to a never-ending barrage of lies, it is not just the weak-minded and the gullible who can fall victim to the scheme of the right-wing media and the party of Trump. For years the right-wing media has gleefully and knowingly promoted half-truths, conspiracies, and out-right lies, while Republican politicians either add grist to the mill or say nothing. Birtherism. Crisis-actors at Sandy Hook and Marjorie Stoneman-Douglas. A DNC staffer and an FBI agent murdered before they could expose Hillary Clinton’s criminal behavior. Election fraud. COVID-19 denial. Over and over these lies have been propagated. Scientific studies have shown that if a lie is repeated often enough, it will become the truth in the mind of those targeted. Make no mistake, this has been a targeted attack.
My brother is unreachable. He believes that the election was stolen, that Black Lives Matter is a dangerous and anti-American movement and that Antifa is in control of the Democratic Party. He believes that COVID-19 is a hoax and a way for the government to exercise control. My brother lives in Michigan, where the governor has received death threats and was the subject of a kidnapping plot. Demonstrations are planned for the Michigan Capitol. Will my brother be there? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ll be spending the time leading up to the inauguration filled with dread for our country.
Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri railed against impeachment, proclaiming that “this will only bring up the hate and fire more than ever before.” Perhaps Rep. Smith does not have a family member who can no longer recognize reality. Perhaps he should talk to my sister in-law and their young daughter. The hate and the fire has been stoked for years, Rep. Smith, and it is you and your party who have allowed it to continue and often encouraged it. To Kentucky’s Republican leaders, you have failed; to Mitch McConnell, it’s too little too late. History will not judge you kindly; nor should it.
Laura Kennedy is a veterinarian and occasional writer living in Lawrenceburg.