In politics or life, lies make a poor foundation

Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons 

As the road sign you see coming north on 95 attests, this is Trump Country. The sign has gained notoriety … even while construction was going on south of town, out of state drivers have whipped off the highway to stand under it in their red MAGA hats for a few pictures, some causing near collisions in the process.

And that’s okay. In a land where all are equal under the law, not getting caught is still the best defense.

But look how MAGA responds when they do get caught. They’re being oppressed. Victimized by a weaponized judicial system, Not coming after me, says the man they all behold with slack-jawed admiration, “they’re coming after you … I’m just standing in the way.” Convicted on 34 felony counts by a jury of peers in a court of competent jurisdiction, you or I would be off to jail.

Convicted of 34 felony counts by a jury of peers in a court of competent jurisdiction, Donald Trump’s legions swoon and he convinces his hand-picked majority of the highest court in the land to grant the president immunity from criminal prosecution, him being the first who would need it and the only one to date who would accept it.

And it’s the Democrats’ fault. Can’t reason with them people.

“Anyone that agrees with a party that agrees with post birth abortion, agreeing to minors being transitioned, and so on and she will is evil and promotes moral degradation and has to to be mentally sick. One day those people will meet their maker. Justice will be served. 9B news I thought was a news outlet?”

Couple of things … no party agrees with post birth abortion … that’s murder. No party agrees to minors being transitioned; that’s something to be worked out by the family with a physician. Only one party considers such things to be serious issues, and that because only one man convinced them it was so. How?

By lying.

It’s what conmen do, and Trump is one of the best.

I did at long last get a considered response to a question I’ve asked for almost a decade … “What do you see in Donald J. Trump?”

“My pocket book,” she wrote. “My eyes, my gut and soul screams highest economy EVER…..IT’S not rocket science, hellooooow!!!!! Make America Safe, Strong, Secure, Sane, Great Again, we the people are done with the b.s., lies, cheating, games, crap they have leashed on us. God Help US All!!!!!!!!!!!”

Man, it must be rough being so grievously oppressed when you are among the world’s most affluent and coddled, with nice houses and cars, full bellies, savings accounts and retirement funds and voice in a government of, by and for you.

Done with the b.s., lies, cheating and games? Then why are you supporting a twice impeached convicted felon who incited insurrection and wants only to usurp power to and for himself? Who promises liberty while restricting voting rights, telling you, by force of law, who you can love, what you can read, how you can worship. Who has made himself above the law, and so negates the rule of law? Who is eager to lay his right hand on a book he knows nothing about to swear an oath to protect a document he has already weakened and promises to destroy?

Boy howdy if ya’ll MAGA folk ain’t just a sunny kind of special.

“I will take President Trump over people who believe in killing babies up until birth that’s disgusting or wants you to believe we need tampons in the boys restroom, or that illegal people should have the right to vote, I can’t even vote in city elections because I live in a rural district but a person who comes into my country illegally can vote for president now that’s screwed up yep I will vote for the party who actually loves this country.”

That so many good and well-meaning United States citizens can be induced to believe such ludicrous and injurious lies is alarming. That it is a former president again aspiring to that office who is promulgating all those lies, launching off a new one as each old one begins succumbing to truth, is a clear indication of Trump’s insincerity. His actions since announcing his first run president confirm that logic.

If you want to see the practical results of those lies, count the accomplishments of the “freedom-loving, conservative” MAGA faction of state and federal governments.

In state after state, including Idaho, draconian new laws telling us what we can read, who we can love, what we can teach, how we ought worship, what conditions we and our doctors can treat. GOP factions insist on loyalty to the Party uber alles (“above all else”) and push to make it harder to vote as a means of retaining power, a clear sign of a party out of ideas

Thanks largely to the MAGA faction and Trump sycophants now serving, the 118th United States Congress is on track to become one of the least productive in U.S. history.

Ignoring essential duties and obligations, they’ve tackled the meaningless issues of woke, sought retribution against Trump’s enemies, holding baseless impeachment hearings on Biden administration officials and spending millions and wasting years going after Joe Biden and his son Hunter, all the while decrying Democrats for weaponizing the Department of Justice.

What did they achieve? Nothing but trumped up charges against Hunter Biden and an empty report released today by three GOP committees led by such towering paragons of virtue and acumen as James Comey and Jim Jordan.

As the Democratic National Convention gets underway they drop the bombshell, “Yeah, we know Crooked Joe Biden and his crime family done did something because that’s what Donald tol’ us. We know he did it, but we ain’t found no evidence.”

Same ignoble end as the all but dead Big Lie that the election of 2020 was stolen (stand by for version two if he’s defeated again in 2024, as is beginning to appear more likely.)

The same end as all lies. But boy, the damage a lie can do before truth prevails. Want to Make America Great Again, put America first? Go to the polls and send MAGA candidates packing. Elect competent candidates who can tell you their own platform without resorting to the MAGA lies or scripts prepared by the right-wing Liberty lobbies that rate candidates based solely on how they toe the party line and vote as they’re told.

Elect candidates who are unafraid of the truth. And remember, in this election, as in but one before, you’re not voting for a candidate or a party. You are deciding again whether “a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal,” a “… government of the people, by the people, for the people,” shall or shall not perish from the earth.