This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington, a retired middle school principal.
For close to eight years now, the nation has watched the rise of Donald Trump, first as a candidate, then as a one-term president, and now as a defeated president. For those who have wondered who has supported this man, by now I believe there are three basic groups: the gullible cult, the financially greedy and the evil political leaders. By far the worst are the evil leaders at all levels who have supported and promoted the messaging from Trump that continues to infect the fabric of our nation.
I’m not overly concerned with the gullible cult who still believe that the Democratic Party runs a Satanic pedophile ring, that ex-president Barack Obama was born in Kenya, that the climate crisis is a hoax, that Antifa was behind the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, that the 2020 election was stolen by the “Deep State,” and that the Covid pandemic was a bioweapon from China. The list of conspiracy myths, especially those fostered by QAnon and ultra-far-right websites continues to fascinate the cult. There’s not much room for reason or change with this group of Trumpers.
Then there are the financially greedy supporters of the ex-president. Unlike the cult, this group knows better than to believe in the far-right conspiracies, but they’ve placed their financial interests ahead of the interests of America. “I don’t particularly like the ex-President, but I love his policies that lowered my taxes,” is a familiar refrain from this group. Those who voted for and supported Trump to promote their business interests or for their personal financial gain have helped the ex-president to keep this group quiet by satisfying their financial goals. The myth of “trickle-down economics,” existing tax rate inequities, loopholes and shelters resulting in the loss of billions of dollars to support essential public services in our communities, states and federal government do not seem to bother this crowd as long as they benefit personally from this unjust system.
The financially greedy must also include the mass media, which continue to give the defeated president coverage as if he were still in office. Succumbing to the rating bonanza offered by skilled media celebrities, major media corporations have sought the dollars that have come with the coverage of every move and every sentence spoken by the ex-president. As it was during the campaigns, the media was Trump’s greatest super PAC and it continues to be so today.
But those individuals who are in a position of power to change the ex-president’s continuing narrative of grievances and lies are doing true longstanding damage to America. Their silence and inaction are evil. These are the Republicans who know the ex-president’s messaging is wrong and a danger to our nation’s democracy. They have abandoned their civic and moral duty to advocate for the preservation of America’s 245-year-old Constitution and system of government. Avoiding the opportunity to call out the ex-president’s lies year after year is evil because this group knows what to do, how to do it and what will happen to the nation if they do not act.
Republicans in this latter group know that Trump is wrong and most understand the risk of his authoritarian rule. Yet their desire to maintain their elected position of power, money and privilege keeps them either silent or faking support for the ex-president’s lies and vicious, destructive attacks on our fragile democracy and our government. They know better and as a group, they have the power to change the course of this frightening moment in our nation’s history.
Evil has been defined as the absence of goodness. We know it as morally wrong, harmful, villainous, corrupt, nefarious, offensive, highly reprehensible and destructive, all of which could easily describe the behavior and actions of the defeated ex-president. However, the years of silence and unwillingness to confront such behavior and actions quickly paints those Republicans in Congress, their party donors, lobbyists and lawyers, state governors, local legislators, mayors and other appointed or elected officials as a collective picture of evil as well.
The question for most of us is: How do we combat a gullible cult, greedy financiers and corporations, and evil leaders? Will time take its toll on these groups as it has in the past, when goodness is no longer absent and finally reappears? Let’s hope history repeats itself, and the tiresome rants from demagogues are finally exposed for what most of us already knew they were: lies. We must have faith that lies do not last. They never have. And throughout America’s history, goodness and the better angels of our nature have resurrected the truth and saved our democracy. I remain optimistic that this will occur again.