The Other Big Lie of the 21st Century (so far)

 

Did he or didn’t he? Is he lying, again? Was it or wasn’t it? How do we know? What we do know is that false claims of election fraud are not the first Big Lie of the 21^st Century. My interests lead me to read books including Senator Ben Nelson’s (D) latest, Death of the Senate, My Front Row Seat to the Demise of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body. In his book Nelson discussed the other Big Lie.

You better think. Think about what you're trying to do to me (Aretha Franklin)

                        Video: Aretha Franklin (feat Matt Guitar Murphy & Blues Brothers)

In his recount of the lead up to the war on Iraq, Nelson shares, “I do not regret voting for the war.” Should he? Obviously memoirs craft the historical record. Nelson walks the reader through the complexity of the issue and writes, “I regret that the misinformation was so bad.”

Let's go back, let's go way on back…

You couldn't have been too much more than ten.

We knew Saddam Hussein once had WMDs (weapons of mass destruction) because he’d gassed fellow citizens thirty-nine times resulting in mass genocide. Hussein’s potential ownership and threat to use WMDs was not unfounded. 

Today we know several things about the conflict in Iraq: oil played no role, WMDs were never found, and despite Vice President Cheney’s assurances, “…we will be greeted as liberators,” we weren’t, and there were no plans for governing in the aftermath. We did not export democracy, the world is not a safer place, and that those who peddled uncertainty and misinformation inflicted irreparable death, distrust, and damage.

After reading Nelson’s expose, I pondered whether the Big Lie of WMDs was a more significant deceit than undermining voter confidence in free and fair elections.

I ain't no psychiatrist, I ain't no doctor with degrees. 

But, it don't take too much high IQ's, to see what you're doing to me.

 Perhaps the first lesson from the WMD vote is that many got fooled by the deceit including both legislative branches. How did this happen? It happened because of the actions of a few. Through obfuscation, innuendo, and dubious sources, enough uncertainty was created to drag the nation into war.

They knew that once the masses bought in, the resistant few could be steamrolled with accusations of being unpatriotic, out-of-step politically, or worse, being cowards.

Today we know shoddy information cost hundreds of thousands of lives, hundreds of billions of dollars, and our sense of national righteousness. The city on the hill shone a bit less brightly.

There ain't nothing you could ask, I could answer you but I won't. 

What we should have learned is when elected officials play patty cake with the truth; their political opposition does not pay the price. Those who pay the price are that young man down-the-street who played little league with your son and then joined the Army after graduating from High School. Or the girl your daughter had stay overs with in third grade, then grew up and joined the Air Force. Too often the young and the innocent have paid the price for political deceptions.

We all lose when good candidates forego public service due to ideological litmus tests, fealty oaths, and overbearing partisanship.

But who wins? Today China leverages our failings against us including Biden’s fumbled withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump turning his back on Turkish Kurds, and the erosion on democracy begat by the myth of election fraud,

What’s the lesson?

Citizenship includes responsibility. We didn’t really know whether Iraq has WMD or not. Upstanding citizens were bamboozled by those peddling fear, division, and exaggeration.  The late Colin Powell noted that misinformation and a rush to judgement cost us dearly in Iraq.

Unlike WMDs, we know with absolute certainty there was no widespread election fraud in 2020. Those who suggest otherwise, or who stand by with a wink and a nod, are actively dividing our nation and undermining our trust in the institutions that guide American democracy.

People walking around every day, playing games, and taking scores.

When Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and Unicameral Senator Rob Clements genuflected before the mob in exchange for votes, they stoked the myth of election fraud. In doing so, they weakened voter confidence in our democratic institutions. 

Trying to make other people lose their minds. Be careful you don't lose yours. 

Although the facts have been settled in the courts, in all fifty states, in the House of Representatives, and by most politicos, when elected officials undermine trust in the institutions of self-governance, including the results of a free and fair election, the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution become antiquated obstacles to mere election strategies.

You better think. Think about what you're trying to do to me