Sometimes, after the source of an odor is gone, the smell lingers on. So it is now in Washington where the stench of the recent administration remains with us. Perhaps it is because a number of purveyors of the rancid odor are unwilling to clean it up and move on. Those who aided Donald Trump, his conscious and unwitting accomplices, are reluctant to do their duty and aid the new administration with a fresh new essence. In many ways, they are addicted to the recent smell and unwilling to clean the atmosphere and start anew.
Many of the same actors who reinforced the old administration’s lies are still in place and in fact are unwilling to admit that Joe Biden won the presidential election and that Trump lost. Even after all this time and confirmation of Biden’s victory by multiple courts and state officials, the Trump suck-ups are still afraid to recognize Biden as the winner. They are afraid of the residual power that Trump has and how it might affect them in the future. Certainly, they cannot believe at this point that Trump was victorious, but are afraid of the consequences if they cross the party’s purported leader. Perhaps that is the odor emitted from the Capitol, of multiple lies originating in fear.
Because Republican officials will not tell the truth about the election, tens of millions of the GOP base still believe that Trump won the election and are offering him support. Democracy depends on elected officials showing the courage to back the truth and cannot survive if a majority of Republican officials are subscribing to blatant lies. How can Biden and the Democrats run the nation when most of the opposing party believe that the president is illegitimate? And that includes armed militias who already revealed that they were willing to invade Washington.
This is a new situation for America where a previous president was unwilling to admit defeat and transfer the reins of power peacefully. But as long as party officials are backing his contention, the majority of his base will support him.
When we look at candidates during an election campaign, we consider policy. Honesty and courage to stand up to those who are spouting lies are usually not in the mix, particularly if he or she comes from the same tribe. But then when the defeated candidate leaves, the fetid lies remain behind, their malodorousness and putrefaction constantly assailing our nostrils, because not enough of the candidate’s backers had the courage to contradict what were obvious lies. How does America deal with the millions of citizens who were willing to accept these lies and the officials who defended these stances? Can democracy ultimately survive when so many voters do not seem to care?
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Posted at 07:45 AM in Current Affairs, fetid, lies, smell,, Trump | Permalink
Tags: fetid, lies, Republican support, smell, Trump after odor
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Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020