This is something that I have been mulling over for a long time. It’s the complete inversion of reality by Republicans that really gets to me. Of course, Donald Trump is the leader in this regard, as well as other craziness, but it’s really something that most Republican politicians and conservative media engages in, and has since before Donald Trump decided to run for president. Trump has just taken it further down the rabbit hole to its ultimate conclusion.
Let’s start with Donald Trump’s recent statements.
Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in the United States’ history, calls Joe Biden the most corrupt president in the United States’ history.
Also, he calls Biden a “horrible person” and a “horrible president.” Trump is a horrible person and was a horrible president.
Trump implies that Biden is an autocrat and a bully, who is persecuting him – the actual would-be autocrat, bully and persecutor.
Furthermore, Trump never stops referring to every liberal as a “radical.” I will stand by my assessment – with which political scholars agree – that it is the Republican Party that is the truly radical faction in U.S. politics. And I am sure that there is much more along the lines of total hypocrisy if we examine Donald Trump’s various statements.
However, even aside from Donald Trump’s language, right-wing media amplifies disturbingly inverted messages vilifying anything and everything about liberals, including the rather mildly liberal Biden administration (Dark and sinister rhetoric drenches right-wing media amid Trump indictments | CNN Business).
As the article states: “The Biden White House is referred to as the “Biden regime.” Federal law enforcement are referred to as the “Gestapo” and Biden’s “personal police force.” Institutions such as the Department of Justice are referred to as “the Department of Injustice.” The indictments against Trump are referred to as “political war crimes” and an “assassination.”
Let us look at some of the ways that I can think of In which Republicans have become total hypocrites:
They call liberals “fascists” when they are in fact, acting fascistically;
They call liberals “elites,” when in fact, they are the party of the true elites in this society, the ultra-wealthy;
They complain about Democrats making people dependent upon the government, when in fact, it is Republican-dominated states which are most dependent upon the federal government;
They call liberals “lazy” people who don’t want to work, when they are the party of those who live lives of luxury on capital gains;
They are the party which claims to support police, and “law and order,” yet are seriously threatening to tear the whole thing down violently in order to get their way;
They accuse liberals of being autocratic, when in fact it is Republicans who are attacking democratic institutions, and who are weaponizing the legal system, for instance, by stacking the courts and seeking to impeach Joe Biden just for being a Democrat, and out of sheer revenge;
On top of all this, they are the party of “patriots” and “real Americans,” who don’t want to recognize the rights of others who don’t look or think like they do.
And on it goes. This is by no means an exhaustive list. Perhaps you can think of other examples, or I can later on. This is just what I came up with in a short while.
What it really is, is that the Republicans are the party of hypocrites who are selling an inverted version of reality to the gullible.
The brainwashing effect of such language has been dramatic. For example, a recent poll found that 70% of Republican voters consider Biden’s election to be illegitimate. Again, I am sure that the toxic effects of this attack language which is untethered to reality, go far beyond distrusting the election process. As the article states, people who believe such lies (by conservative media, who presumably know better), are being potentially groomed to commit violence in attempts to achieve their political goals. If elections are being “stolen” from them, the true believers think that violence may be necessary in order to achieve what they perceive as “justice” in their inverted worldview. We have already seen this with the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. While many of those involved are being prosecuted, the potential for more, perhaps even worse, radical right-wing violence remains.
Why do Republican politicians, and conservative media, engage in this inverted world crazy talk?
There are several reasons why they do this that I can think of. One that is often given, is that it is a distraction from their own nefarious behavior. Similarly, many people have also mentioned that Republicans are engaging in projection, which is seeing one’s own faults in others. I agree that these reasons are part of the explanation, but I think that this inversion of reality has more to do with primitive urges for power and wealth, and everything that power and wealth can buy. Republicans see this as a way of galvanizing their base, to ensure their loyalty and votes. To the party that claims to be for “family values,” the ends justifies the means. They engage in Machiavellian thinking and behavior in their attempts to get their way through deceit and bullying.
Perhaps they do it because they realize that they have no hope of representing majority opinions with their agenda any longer, and feel that demonizing the rest of society, while spurning democratic institutions in favor of fascist autocracy, gives them their best chance of grasping long-term power. Perhaps they also do this out of insecurity, as several studies have found to be true of Trump voters, who tend to fear loss of status and privilege.
In any case, I find this inversion of reality to paint good people as bad, and themselves as heroes, to be an act of evil. This is what I have really been grappling with. We see articles about how bad hyper-partisanship is, and suggestions that we should not label others as evil just because they disagree with us. However, this is not because they disagree with me. It is because their intentions and actions are in fact, evil. They want to destroy our democracy for their own greedy purposes. I don’t mind people who are honest conservatives, but people attempting to con their way into power and only serve themselves as the Republican Party is systematically doing – who are not in need of help in the first place – is what I find unconscionable. We must call them out for what they are, and legally vote them out or disqualify them from holding office.