By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
Well, we sort of knew that this day of reckoning would come. A day of reckoning not for the convicted felon and adjudged rapist who will again occupy the Oval Office with a haughtiness that knows no bounds.
But rather a day of reckoning for the concept of no one is above the law and that the law applies to both the pauper and the king. It is now glaringly obvious that Donald Trump is now the exception to that rule, helped along in great measure by the temerity of Atty. General Merrick Garland whose highest calling should have been an assistant law librarian!
That rule is what is taught in schools and what is supposed to be the beacon on the path by which America prides itself on its boast about being a nation of laws.
Well, that laudatory concept has been ripped to shreds by almost half of the recent electorate saying in a unified chorus, “We don’t care about laws or rules, we want an autocrat!”
Too many Americans have poached their brains and common sense in a waste pool of anti-intellectualism, hypocrisy, division, and fear mongering, to such a degree that they are nigh brain dead of being able to call a spade…a spade.
The MAGA “base” and their closet sympathizers decided that Trump was their knight on a white horse who would, in a matter of days after his inauguration, slay their demons of being left out of the American Dream or getting their fair share of the economic pie.
And don’t fall for the boogeyman that all those Trump voters were practically in bread lines waiting for some meatless gruel to feed their families.
The fact remains that too many Americans were ready, willing and able to give Lady Justice a sharp elbow in her ribs because they were fed a diet of half lies and disinformation about how the Deep State as characterized by the Biden/Harris ticket was too aloof and indifferent to their plight.
If politics is a game of who tells the least number of lies for their greater benefit, the Trump playbook won out, hands down. Constantly, the Trump news organizations were more adroit than the Harris/Walz ticket in lambasting the government as not being in their corner…and it worked.
Grievances, real or imagined, have a tendency to stick like Velcro when you are repeatedly told that you would do better with a convicted felon billionaire posing as a fake populist who wants to erode the Constitution for his own benefit and grift.
Obviously, the opposite message did not hit its intended mark and the “wars” about culture ruled the roost as anxious Trump voters could only see egg prices at five dollars a dozen; and trans women invading their daughters’ locker rooms at high school sporting events as more important than issues of democracy.
Regrettably, too many GOP Senators ran for their cloak rooms when asked about making a stand against a convicted felon being the head of the American government.
And their all-consuming fear? Trump might call them a name, or he might primary them in their next election. The mere thought that they could possibly be out of a fat-cat job with perks and great retirement benefits was enough for many of them to say, “No comment!” when asked if Trump was fit for the White House.
Fear is a great motivator. Fear of the unknown. Fear of a bully bearing down on you. Fear of being criticized. Fear of ostracism. Fear of your “legacy” being stained. Fear of “others” invading your neighborhood.
So, what do you do? Simple. You get down on all fours and become a facile supplicant to the whims and wishes of a narcissist whose daytime dreams say aloud that Putin is great, NATO is bad, and tax breaks are sorely needed for those needy down and out billionaires!
EZ to understand right? How does a Trump voter negotiate through over thirty thousand lies told by Trump in his first term in office (as reported by the New York Times) and can still say with a straight face that Trump will make America great again?
If your child or spouse or co-worker was a walking non-truth teller, ten dollars to a donut that you would have a word or two with that errant child, spouse, or co-worker.
But. In politics, lying wonders can do miracles with the memory impaired or those who know better but choose to salute a man who has no moral center and whose politics can be defined by one word: ME!
Too many Americans have consciously decided to lie down with the proverbial dog who has fleas and then wonder why they are itching and scratching when they get up from the very bed they made!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com