Question:
Given that former president Donald Trump is a relentless, proven, consistent, pathological liar, why doesn't that fact preface every new report of his latest fabrication?
Why float each new fib as if there were even the possibility of being true?
For instance, his claim that he "had to run the military" while Mike Esper was secretary of defense, the typical ad hominem smokescreen in response to the jaw-dropping claims in Esper's new memoir, A Secret Oath.
In a sane America, the secretary of defense revealing that the ever-fibbing president wanted to fire missiles into Mexico and then pretend we hadn't, or bring in soldiers to shoot Black Lives Matter protesters, would have been huge news and led to the gravest crisis.
But we no longer live in that world. In this world, it barely caused a ripple. In this world, it's just Monday, with news Tuesday sure to efface it with something even more horrendous.
Because no excess of Trump's is damaging. To him. His fans literally do not care what comes out, because the source can always be impugned, and his fan base will never falter. Thus he can shrug off the truth and plaster it over with a thick crust of lies that neither he nor his audience believe.
"What need we fear who knows it," Macbeth asks, "when none can call our power to account?"
Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteIf there's a better quote than your concluding line to characterize the aspect of the current national tragedy that involves the Biggest Loser and his minions, I haven't seen it.
ReplyDeleteWith Nixon, the question was "what did the president know and when did he know it?" and the search for a "smoking gun." With this guy, plenty has been revealed about what he knew and said -- often because he blatantly said it in an interview, or tweeted it himself -- and there are enough smoking guns to satisfy even a rabid 2nd Amendment enthusiast. Yet, among his core faithful, there is no shaking their faith; as for the traitors in Congress who abet him, they pay no price for their treachery. In so many ways, this country is in deep trouble. Yet we go on, day after day, like it's business as usual.
The Iran hostage crisis spawned Nightline, an ABC news program that ran for years after that story was old news. I seem to recall that at least one daily paper ran a page one box counting the days of incarceration endured by our people. Why aren't the days passed without proof of election fraud counted prominently on Page One, or the number of days since His attempted coup, without Donald Drumpf being held without bail in a cold windowless cell. JP
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