States’ rights, America first, Make America Great Again, and Freedom. As much as the right-wing tries to bestow nobility on their coded phrases, those buzzwords were bastardized to promote racism, antisemitism, and misogyny throughout American history. When all else fails, the tactic switches to ignore the truth and replace it with phony spectacle courting the “poorly educated.” Donald Trump said so when he declared I love the poorly educated, “We won the evangelicals. We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated,” said Trump before exclaiming, “I love the poorly educated!” following his 2016 victory in the Nevada primary.
Stuck on Stoopid!
Although there are brilliant people in the Republican party, they are content to let the crazies lead them with violent, unhinged rhetoric. The appeal to the worst of their voters is dangerous. The appalling animated depiction of the murder of congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York was met with deafening silence from GOP leadership. It is no secret that the GOP not only thinks they need the base that applauds Republican Paul Gosar’s threatening behavior—but is wooing them. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R- Colorado) told a room full of veterans, families, and supporters yesterday that the American Revolution lasted for 11 years. It seems apparent she pulled the info from her rifle-butt; since the actual military duration of the war was just over eight years. It demonstrated the blatant disrespect for the veterans she addressed, other than as props. History is not hard to fact-check. Even those in the sparsely attended affair whose hairs were raised on the backs of their necks when she said it, was outnumbered, Boebert hoped, by the poorly educated.
These incidents are not just isolated faux pas or misstatements. They are a part of a calculated effort to disguise jingoism, xenophobia, and race-baiting wrapped in the flag. We all remember the infamous “alternative facts” comments from former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway, but she was not alone or even as brazen. Conway’s attempts at explaining away her words fell as flat as then CNN contributor and Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes. Hughes, who a little more than a year earlier, stated, “There’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore of facts.” Hughes’ baffling explanation at attempting to justify Mr. Trump’s lies was equally inexplicable. “And so Mr. Trump’s tweet amongst a certain crowd, a large — a large part of the population, are truth. When he says that millions of people illegally voted, he has some — in his — amongst him and his supporters, and people believe they have facts to back that up. Those that do not like Mr. Trump, they say that those are lies, and there’s no facts to back it up. So …” she said in an interview to NPR’s Diane Rehm.
We mistakenly talk about Trump’s surrogates, but I contend we have that assertion backward. Trump has been the surrogate all along. A surrogate for the perceived hypnosis that has engulfed the Republican party. Hypnotists cannot persuade someone to do something that goes against their moral character. It is time to face facts; we currently have one party—Republicans—literally willing to kill its base with Covid, alter history, and lie to maintain white superiority.
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