The MAGA Faithful Still Embraces Lies

Over thirty years ago, I began writing snippets of what I hoped to be wisdom regarding the human condition. So as not to take myself too seriously, I gave them the satirical title of “Bob’s Laws.” The first of these laws broken down to its essential truth follows: “Many people believe what they wish to believe.” This brief sentence may best describe the worst of today’s Republican Party. Facts do not matter. Truth does not matter. Terrifyingly, the only thing that does seem to matter to the MAGA faithful are the political positions that serve to make them feel good about themselves and what they call “their values,” along with the conviction that the political Left in our country represents Satan.

With this above understanding, gerrymandering that disenfranchises significant proportions of our society is permissible. Cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits to those that most need it is desirable. Denying women the right to control their own bodies is unarguable. Banning books — the usual fetish of Fascists — is necessary. Placing firearms within the easy reach of the temperamentally or psychologically unfit is imperative. Tarring migrants as “drug dealers and rapists” is acceptable. Servicing the best interests of the “1%,” the wealthiest in America, is essential. Their refusal to consider compromise — the baseline of a healthy democracy — is telling and destructive of all things that tend to define a Republic.

This situation reflects a confluence of negative influences engendering a riot of conspiracy theories that engulf the party of Lincoln, which has betrayed its founding principles and become self-interested. The proof is everywhere evident beginning with the startling revelations in the Dominion Voting Systems vs Fox News Network defamation case, where Fox News’ on-air personalities, Tucker Carlson, Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, and Sean Hannity knowingly amplified multiple untruths chasing ratings without a care of how their corporate mendacities might impact our nation. Rupert Murdoch had to fork-over $787.5 million in damages. Serial con-man Carlson was subsequently fired. Also consider Donald Trump’s deluge of election falsehoods in his first administration that led inexorably to the January 6th Insurrection. He is still at it.

This troubling circumstance represents the victory of self-image over self-interest, where many of the people most in need of government programs vote against the politicians most dedicated to providing for them. The result, poverty in America, is today the fourth most significant reason for death in our nation.

To add insult to injury, dishonesty seems to have metastasized onto the Republican Party as a whole. Conservative politician Liz Cheney stated in a former commencement address at Colorado College that “My fellow Republicans wanted me to lie.” The lie that they wanted her to support was that Joe Biden stole the presidential election from Donald Trump. She refused, clearly valuing her personal integrity over political expediency. I respect her principled decision.

The MAGA faithful’s unfortunate trajectory does not take the best interests of our country into account, only slavish dedication to a distorted worldview masquerading as conservatism, which materially serves only the needs of the “1%.” Moreover, no amount of verifiable fact-based truths will impact this group. Their embrace of fantasy is deeply entwined with their identity. The loss of one, therefore, condemns the other — a tragedy still in the making in Mr. Trump’s current administration.

—

*** Editor’s Note: If you liked this article, you’d definitely want to check out Bob’s latest book: Surviving the United Nations – A True Story of Violence, Corruption, Betrayal, and Redemption. 

It’s an eye-opening account of a Green Beret’s second career at the United Nations. 

And don’t just take my word for it, here is what Publishers Weekly had to say: