GOP truth is stranger than fiction

The Monday Musings!

During today's continuation of the January 6th Committee hearings in Congress, the deposition testimony of former Attorney General Bill Barr—one of former President Donald Trump's most loyal aides during his tenure—provided more damning evidence of the 45th president's brazen attempt to alter the legitimate results of the 2020 election. 

The most pertinent part of General Barr's testimony reads as follows: 

"When I walked in (December of 2020), sat down, (Trump) went off on a monologue saying that there was now definitive evidence involving fraud through the Dominion machines and a report had been prepared by a very reputable cyber-security firm which he identified as Allied Security Operations Group and he held up the report. And then he asked that a copy of it be made for me. And while a copy was being made, he said, 'you know, this is absolute proof that the Dominion Machines were rigged. The report means that I'm going to have a second term...And then he gave me a copy of the report, and as he talked more and more about it, I sat there flipping through the report and looking through it. And to be frank, it looked very amateurish to me. It didn't have the credentials of the people involved but I didn't see any real qualifications. And the statements were made very conclusory, like, 'these machines were designed to engage in fraud' or something to that effect. But I didn't see any supporting information for it. 

And I was somewhat demoralized because I thought, 'boy, if (Trump) really believes this stuff, he has, you know, lost contact with, he's become detached from reality, if he really believes this stuff. 'On the other hand, when I went into this, and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were, there was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were...My opinion then, and my opinion now, is that the election was not stolen by fraud."

Now, anyone who has practiced law for any period of time can tell you that for the right price, an expert can be found who may be willing to write reports (or sign affidavits) that exclaim that the Sun revolves around the Earth...which is flat—not round…and that Earth is THE center of the known universe. The problem is that if such a horrifically flawed expert opinion was ever submitted to a court of law, a learned judge (or judicial panel) would review—and reject—the opinion as not being based in scientific fact.

The same held true for the Trump legal team that relied on the “expert” testimony that Barr chides above, one that fueled many of the 62 lawsuits that Trump’s lawyers filed in courts across America—to the tune of 61 losses! In fact, the one lawsuit that Team Trump won, up in Pennsylvania, was merely a question of procedure regarding absentee ballots in the Keystone State—not the dialectical mendacity that all of the Dominion voting machines across America were rigged to elect Joe Biden. 

It remains a sad event to me that there are millions of Americans who still believe Trump’s lies—lies that make ZERO logical sense when considering Republican congressional gains in districts or states where Trump lost to Biden! Meaning, if those machines were rigged for the Democratic Party, logic would hold that Democrats in down ballot races should have defeated their Republican challengers, too!

What’s even sadder, albeit a tad humorous, is that the Trump faithful poured nearly 250 million of their dollars right into Trump's coffers to "stop the steal" when, the evidence further shows that their money sure didn't go into any legitimate legal claims filed by the very man who was actually trying to steal the election—Mr. Trump!

But, as I wrote on Facebook earlier today, "grifters gon’ grift," and there is a reason that, from time to time, cult figures arise that capture the imaginations of those looking for someone who aligns with their views—or assuages their deepest insecurities. 

Then President Ronald Reagan and businessman Donald Trump circa ‘87.

Since announcing his candidacy for president back in 2015, Trump, if nothing else, has understood human frailty —and the power of celebrity—and used both quite effectively to project himself into a status among conservatives that rivals, if not exceeds, that of former President Ronald Reagan.

Whereas Reagan used charm to lie about the threats that Black drug dealers, non-WASP immigrants, and "welfare queens" posed to America, Trump invoked those same bigoted tropes—while using angry rhetoric to tap into the resentment that many of his white followers (and a few of the Black ones who don’t seem to know they are Black, like Herschel Walker) feel towards racial minorities, immigrants from Mexico and Islamic nations, as well as gender and sexual orientation politics that cut against their view of what America should be. A view, they contend, that America should be as its Founding Fathers created during the 1787 Constitutional Convention: a white male dominated society where white women knew their subservient places, Blacks were seen and not heard, Christianity was the de facto state religion, while gays and lesbians stayed staid in their closets. 

While I fully understand the fears that Trump deftly exploits among his loyal followers, I remain curious as to:

1. Why did seemingly intelligent professionals, like Attorney General Bill Barr, sit silent for so long? Why did it take a subpoena—and the specter of penalty of perjury—for Barr to tell the blatantly obvious truth that most intelligent Americans, including some who voted for Trump, understood as soon as the final tally showed, which is that Joe Biden had won fair and square? 

2. What is it about Trump that inspires so much loyalty from those who opened their pockets and poured that $250 million into his “legal fight” in December of 2020—even though the bulk of Trump's inner circle, including his daughter and closest aide, Ivanka, knew that there was no fraud—and no pathway to victory? 

3. What will the future of America hold if an incumbent president can chuck the truth to the wind and declare himself the victor despite ample evidence of his defeat? Again, if President Joe Biden were to lose in 2024 and pull the same foolishness, I would join the chorus of voices calling for him to adhere to the peaceful transition of power and to exit the Oval Office—one that’s more important than the man or woman who occupies the big chair behind the big desk.

4. At the end of jury instructions in Florida, the presiding judge always reminds the jury panel that "for more than two centuries, we have lived by the Constitution and the law." Well, what happens when "we" no longer agree to live by that Constitution, or make the law up on a whim, such as Trump's "I won" declarations in 2020—despite overwhelming evidence of his sound defeat?

Indeed, these questions require each of us to determine what are our universal truths—and to square those truths against the selfish individual lies of any would be tyrant.

Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a good night!