If you have been watching the Republican National Convention, you may have noticed something. There is no more Republican Party. It is all Trump, all the time. It is post-policy. They not only do not govern, they are no longer capable of governing — just looting. They have no principles, no convictions. Their only goal is winning elections, and they have a two-pronged strategy to do it.
One: The Big Lie Technique
They lie bigly, lies so big and blatantly false, they count on sheer incredulity to overwhelm skepticism. Repeat, repeat, repeat — until there’s no more room for the truth. Until people no longer know what to believe or whom to trust. Until people doubt their own senses and give up trying to make sense of things.
They intimidate the press; accuse them of bias. Hammer them as “fake news”. Attack reporters personally. Create an entire “alternative facts” propaganda news bubble for the True Believers.
Pound the media so hard, they will self-censor and bend over backwards to ‘prove’ they aren’t biased. They will normalize the worst Trump Party behavior while holding others to a double standard. (This account of how the NY Times handled Al Gore versus the Trump campaign shows how deep the rot has gone.)
Lie about the lies. When one lie breaks down, send out new ones — and lie about the old ones. Bury the truth so deep it smothers. While the Truth is still putting on its boots, Lies can now travel around the world at the speed of the internet — and come up behind Truth to kick it in the butt.
When called out on lies, they strike back. They go on the offensive even harder. They never admit to remorse or doubt — those are signs of weakness. They project certainty and strength. They make their questioners doubt themselves. Shamelessness works.
And when Reality finally catches up — if it ever does — they resort to the second part of the strategy.
Two: Scapegoat
Eventually, reality may become a little too insistent to deny. When lies aren’t enough, they throw out a scapegoat, wrapped in more lies. Blaming the victim is a classic — as in George Floyd was high on drugs; Jacob Blake was child molester with a knife. Breonna Taylor was…. something. California should have kept its floors clean.
They use distancing. There’s nothing like having a scapegoat they can blame for everything while denying any connection to them. Dylann Roof was a lone wolf. Kyle Rittenhouse is just a good kid trying to do what he could to resist mob violence. It’s just a coincidence that he is a Trump supporter. When law and order break down, never admit the breakdown began with the police.
They use fear and smear to demonize their opponents. They project their sins onto their opponents. Donald Trump is a “great family man” — while Joe Biden… They don’t have to be a good person if they can make their target look worse. In fact they can brag that they ‘recognize’ they are not perfect while their target is an unmitigated scoundrel.
And if they do it right, they can even make deplorables into heroes.
Resort to Conspiracy Theories. CT can explain anything. Scientists are engaged in a global conspiracy to promote climate change to get grant money. Vincent Foster was murdered to cover up.. something. George Soros is paying protestors to push his liberal socialist agenda. Students protesting gun violence are paid “crisis actors”. Donald Trump is fighting a secret war against the “deep state” — don't be fooled by what you see. And so on.
When there are enough fake conspiracy theories being floated around, actual conspiracies can happen in plain sight and be ignored, like Trump’s documented ties to Russia, Trump’s impeachment over trying to blackmail Ukraine into smearing Biden, Trump's payoffs to pornstars, Trump's tax scams…
Trump fatigue is real. They don’t even try to hide what they are doing anymore. They hardly have to.
Why They Do It
Because it works.
Playing to people’s fears, anger, greed, telling them what they want to hear, telling them what they want to believe is right is right — it’s a lot easier than confronting inconvenient truths and uncomfortable realities. The Trump Party base is all about this. The Trump Effect is in full play — when the true believers are confronted by reality, they double-down on the lies to block it out.
The party formerly known as Republican has been running on empty for years. Donald Trump has spent his entire life running scams and dodging responsibility. He burned through his own inheritance, he burned through other people’s money — now he is burning through America. He is the “great leader” they have been looking for. Did he really reshape the party in his own image, or did he just reveal what it already was?
It doesn't really matter. We know what they are and what they are doing.
We also know one more thing. When Lies and Scapegoating aren’t enough, they cheat. If they can steal this election, they will, and they’ll brag about it.
What does matter is prying this right wing authoritarian death cult off of our country and driving it into the wilderness while we try to repair the damage they have done. The party of Big Lies and Scapegoating must be ended or it will end us.
