The Big Lie is a political propaganda technique that was used by Adolf Hitler to take power in Germany. The concept is that you tell a lie so outrageous that nobody would believe you had the audacity to just make it up. In other words, the idea is so out of reality, the simple minded accept it because they aren’t capable of the critical thinking needed to have a true understanding of politics and propaganda.
Adolf Hitler initiated the Big Lie tactic to blame Jews for Germany’s loss in World War I, and for the general ills of Germany as a country in the aftermath. The Nazis then used the Big Lie to turn anti-Semitism into mass murder.
Donald Trump is known for idolizing Adolf Hitler’s approach to politics and his white supremacist beliefs. In Trump’s case, he has used the technique of the Big Lie on multiple occasions. Most recently he has employed the Big Lie technique to cast doubt upon an election that his own administration called the most secure in the history of the United States. This is per a statement issued by Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Furthermore, Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General William Barr declared that the U.S. Justice Department uncovered zero evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Trump and his enablers knew he was going to lose the 2020 presidential election well in advance. In the months coming up to the 2020 election, Trump trailed Joe Biden by double digits in every recognized poll. This includes polls by far-right institutions like Fox News. Also, Trump is the only president to never crack a 50% approval rating. And, keep in mind he lost the 2016 popular vote by 3 million.
So, long before the 2020 election, Trump and his personnel started laying the groundwork for the Big Lie. They claimed without any evidence that there would be widespread voter fraud by the Democrats, when in fact there was none.
In fact, the closest thing to voter fraud were Trump’s own actions. For example, he installed loyalist Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General in advance of the election with specific orders to slow down mail delivery to prevent Democratic ballots from being received on time and counted in the 2020 election. Other Trump attempts to rig the votes in his favor included sending armed “militia” (ie domestic terrorists) to be a presence at polling places to intimidate voters. These actions were furthered by voting district gerrymandering by the Republicans in swing states.
But Trump’s war on free elections failed as voters turned out in record numbers to remove him from office and instill Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States. And, it wasn’t even close. Biden won the election by over 7 million votes.
But Trump is a liar and a cheat. He had no intention of abiding by the wants of the country’s majority. Instead of conceding the election, Trump staged an all-out attack on the election process. He demanded recount after recount, and had his quack lawyers file over 60 lawsuits all but one of which were dismissed. (And the one that wasn’t dismissed had zero affect on either the popular vote or the electoral college.)
And yet with all the votes being counted and certified, Trump still pushed the Big Lie. He falsely claimed he and not Biden was the one to win by a landslide. Sadly, the Kool-AId drinkers who idolize Trump are too feeble minded to question his lies. They play right into his plan and accept the unbelievable as fact. It is because it is so unbelievable that they believe it. “Who in their right mind would make such a think up?” they ask themselves.
But lies can have consequences. Trump is currently facing impeachment because of how far he took his Big Lie. After weeks of firing up his base, on January 6, Trump orchestrated a violent uprising by his followers. Claiming with no merit that he had been robbed of the presidency, Trump urged his followers to storm the Capitol and steal the election by force. So blinded by Trump’s Big Lie, his followers did his bidding and killed and injured police while storming the Capitol. They were on a mission to kill Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and take other members of congress hostage. They were there to take the government by force in Trump’s name. In short, Trump used his Big Lie to cause an attempted insurrection.
Unfortunately, it is far easier to convince someone of a lie then it is to convince them they have been tricked. Trump and Fox News have been force feeding the public his white supremacist rhetoric for years. His followers are like those in a cult. They believe anything he says, despite the fact that the Washington Post tracked that Trump told over 20,000 lies during his presidency.
At the end of the day, Trump’s followers will never accept the truth no matter how big the lies are that Trump tells. It is in their nature. They are but sheep.
Peace. Love. Trust.
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