Professor Richardson, the dark intensity of your missive today is difficult to endure because it is so important, so profound! As you write, "What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country." It is almost too strange to be fiction, never mind reality.
Professor Richardson, the dark intensity of your missive today is difficult to endure because it is so important, so profound! As you write, "What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country." It is almost too strange to be fiction, never mind reality.
The term The Big Lie has specific origins, "The original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. Adolf Hitler applied it to the behavior of Jews rather than as a tactic he advocated. Specifically, he accused Viennese Jews of trying to discredit the Germans’ activities during World War I." 1.
Joseph Goebbels wrote further, "“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 1. The man who refuses to allow people to call him "the former president", but insists that he be called "the 45th President", thinks of himself and his followers as a government in exile.
We are in a dangerous place. "Lawyers from the Justice Department have been arguing in court lately that Trump’s continued lying about the election, along with the amplification of those lies by right-wing media, remains an ongoing threat." writes HCR.
It's real for me, too, Marlene. It COULD happen here, which is why we need HCR and many of her respondents to keep us alert, and thoughtful, and vocal, and ACTIVE. Sincere thanks to many, many of you.
In the year 2000, I was performing with a group of guitarists in a Nursing Home outside of Hanover, Germany. As I was playing, I started doing the math... I realized that the elderly people in the home that I was performing for were all in their late teens or 20's during the Second World War. It cast a different light on that entire performance for me. I didn't feel judgemental towards them, rather that I was caught in the weight of history. It was very heavy.
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
Ah, but the perpetrators of the Big Lie are currently *not* the State. A not insignificant distinction. They flail.
A thought experiment. Let’s suppose that the current status quo endures through to November 2022. We’ll stipulate that Biden and Co. have not committed any illegalities or immoralities of the sort we witnessed in the former guy’s regime. We’ll stipulate that a new charismatic, talented and untainted leader has come along to lead the Republicans out of the bleakness of their current wilderness. And we’ll assume that HR1 has been passed, probably through some form of negation of the filibuster. I know, I know, there’s the quixotic Joe Manchin and the...unusual...Kirsten Sinema. But for the purposes of this thought experiment HR1 is enacted.
Given the above, do you believe still that politics will follow the timeworn cycle of throwing the bums out in the off-year and thus the Democrats’ world will come crashing down?
I, for one, do not think that way *at all*. For better or worse the Trump presidency has cast a long shadow over everything political. The old rules which we fear when they bode evil for us (and still view with suspicion when “it’s our turn”) are gone. Poof. It’s a different world.
My view is that, given the above stipulations, the Democrats will hold serve in 2022. They will at least maintain the House and it’s not a bad moment in the cycle for them to capture the Senate without need of a tie-breaking vote.
Should that happen, Biden/Harris or Harris/? will without doubt hold the WH in 2024. And if that transpires, then all bets are on for the kind of generational run that Roosevelt initiated in 1932 and Reagan created in 1980.
I write this because I read so many comments that 2022 is a write-off in this forum. It’s beginning to have the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy or a death wish. All in all it’s making me mental and anybody who knows me would tell you I’m not that far off to begin with. :)
Eric It is indeed a shame to see us so fearful, but it is also notable that without that fear factor we could complacently undergo an Election cycle repeating 2010. Truly we need to be alert but hopeful.
I have tried to find authentic site to Goebbels quote of the "Big Lie." No one ever gives a cite for the quotation and there are over 500,000 uses of it when Googled. Though I know Goebbels lied, I doubt that he would have announced it. He continually claimed that he told the truth, which is the bedrock of convincing propaganda. I have also read that the quote was made by Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf" when he was mounting his argument about the "evils" of Jews. THEY ( the Jews) tell big lies and hence should be eradicated. I agree that Trump is guilty of Big Lies, but I doubt that Goebbels publicly promoted it with such a statement. https://bytwerk.com/gpa/falsenaziquotations.htm
Professor Richardson, the dark intensity of your missive today is difficult to endure because it is so important, so profound! As you write, "What is at stake is the future of the Republican Party. What is also at stake is the future of the country." It is almost too strange to be fiction, never mind reality.
The term The Big Lie has specific origins, "The original description of the big lie appeared in Mein Kampf. Adolf Hitler applied it to the behavior of Jews rather than as a tactic he advocated. Specifically, he accused Viennese Jews of trying to discredit the Germans’ activities during World War I." 1.
Joseph Goebbels wrote further, "“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” 1. The man who refuses to allow people to call him "the former president", but insists that he be called "the 45th President", thinks of himself and his followers as a government in exile.
We are in a dangerous place. "Lawyers from the Justice Department have been arguing in court lately that Trump’s continued lying about the election, along with the amplification of those lies by right-wing media, remains an ongoing threat." writes HCR.
1. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-goebbels-on-the-quot-big-lie-quot
Both of my parents were Holocaust victims. Yes, this is very real for me.
I have no personal experience with this but will never forget with you, Marlene.
Thank you for carrying the terrible burden of bearing witness. We can never forget because the danger hasn’t passed.
I'm so very sorry for this!
My heart aches for you.
It's real for me, too, Marlene. It COULD happen here, which is why we need HCR and many of her respondents to keep us alert, and thoughtful, and vocal, and ACTIVE. Sincere thanks to many, many of you.
In the year 2000, I was performing with a group of guitarists in a Nursing Home outside of Hanover, Germany. As I was playing, I started doing the math... I realized that the elderly people in the home that I was performing for were all in their late teens or 20's during the Second World War. It cast a different light on that entire performance for me. I didn't feel judgemental towards them, rather that I was caught in the weight of history. It was very heavy.
Welcome to my life. Welcome to my world.
Oh Marlene, how tragic.... I ache for you.
“The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie.”
Ah, but the perpetrators of the Big Lie are currently *not* the State. A not insignificant distinction. They flail.
A thought experiment. Let’s suppose that the current status quo endures through to November 2022. We’ll stipulate that Biden and Co. have not committed any illegalities or immoralities of the sort we witnessed in the former guy’s regime. We’ll stipulate that a new charismatic, talented and untainted leader has come along to lead the Republicans out of the bleakness of their current wilderness. And we’ll assume that HR1 has been passed, probably through some form of negation of the filibuster. I know, I know, there’s the quixotic Joe Manchin and the...unusual...Kirsten Sinema. But for the purposes of this thought experiment HR1 is enacted.
Given the above, do you believe still that politics will follow the timeworn cycle of throwing the bums out in the off-year and thus the Democrats’ world will come crashing down?
I, for one, do not think that way *at all*. For better or worse the Trump presidency has cast a long shadow over everything political. The old rules which we fear when they bode evil for us (and still view with suspicion when “it’s our turn”) are gone. Poof. It’s a different world.
My view is that, given the above stipulations, the Democrats will hold serve in 2022. They will at least maintain the House and it’s not a bad moment in the cycle for them to capture the Senate without need of a tie-breaking vote.
Should that happen, Biden/Harris or Harris/? will without doubt hold the WH in 2024. And if that transpires, then all bets are on for the kind of generational run that Roosevelt initiated in 1932 and Reagan created in 1980.
I write this because I read so many comments that 2022 is a write-off in this forum. It’s beginning to have the air of a self-fulfilling prophecy or a death wish. All in all it’s making me mental and anybody who knows me would tell you I’m not that far off to begin with. :)
Eric It is indeed a shame to see us so fearful, but it is also notable that without that fear factor we could complacently undergo an Election cycle repeating 2010. Truly we need to be alert but hopeful.
So true. Vigilance is a way of life now. Sad that it’s become so necessary.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty
-- Thomas Jefferson
From your mouth to G-d's ears. Let's work for it.
I have tried to find authentic site to Goebbels quote of the "Big Lie." No one ever gives a cite for the quotation and there are over 500,000 uses of it when Googled. Though I know Goebbels lied, I doubt that he would have announced it. He continually claimed that he told the truth, which is the bedrock of convincing propaganda. I have also read that the quote was made by Hitler in his book "Mein Kampf" when he was mounting his argument about the "evils" of Jews. THEY ( the Jews) tell big lies and hence should be eradicated. I agree that Trump is guilty of Big Lies, but I doubt that Goebbels publicly promoted it with such a statement. https://bytwerk.com/gpa/falsenaziquotations.htm
https://novel-science.com/strategic-lies-deliberate-untruths-used-as-a-political-tactic-new-study/
I found this article about "deliberate untruths" in the U.K. to be pertinent to the U.S.