Holding Trump, His Enablers, Professional Grifters, and Conspiracy Believers Accountable

What unfolded today in Washington, DC, was the natural outcome of four years of Republican actions/inactions, endless enabling of Trump, constant lies and cynical opportunists pandering to some of the most disgusting elements of American society.  Viewing photos of Trump's "supporters" who vandalized the Capitol the majority appeared to be what my southern belle grandmother - a woman decades ahead of her time in terms of her views on racial equality - would have described as "white trash."  Hillary Clinton aptly described these Trump cultists for what they are, deplorables.  After today domestic terrorists is another apt description. Yes, Trump has lied to these people incessantly and stoked their delusions of lost white privilege but he had many accomplices, not the least of whom are Fox News talking heads to the every member of the sedition caucus in the Senate and House of Representatives who added credence to the dim witted and virulently racist by announcing they would oppose certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory solely for personal ambition. ALL of these individuals need to be held accountable and, in the case of the congressional sedition caucus, removal from office. An op-ed in the New York Times looks at this wide culpability for today's attempted coup d'état. Here are column excerpts:

On Wednesday, thousands of Trump supporters flocked to Washington to protest and overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. They listened to their president say he would never concede, that American elections were no longer free or fair. Then he [Trump]implored his audience to march on the Capitol building. Moments later, Trump supporters chanting, “This is our house” broke past police lines at the Capitol.

For close observers of the pro-Trump and far-right extremist movements, this dark moment has felt almost inevitable. You can draw a straight line from the message-board fever swamps to Mr. Trump’s rallies to Charlottesville to “Stand back and stand by” to this. It is a desperate attempt to overthrow the democratic process. It is also the crash of a universe of toxic conspiracies against the rocks of human reality.

“The way I am seeing it is as a crescendo,” Marc-André Argentino, a researcher who studies the QAnon movement, told me earlier this week referring to the planned protest. . . . . “There is the sense that in some circles all hope for a Trump win will be lost,” Mr. Argentino said. “For others it’s the end of a Trump era, when they had free rein. For some it’s frustration at upcoming liberal governance and lockdown measures.”

As Wednesday’s siege of the Capitol demonstrates, we’re entering a volatile moment. Those who’ve been cocooned in Facebook groups and fed a steady diet of lies from election-denial outlets like Newsmax and One America News are coming to a realization that there is no grand plan for Mr. Trump to magically retain office. In forums like The_Donald, die-hard supporters are furious, not only at congressional Republicans who’ve refused to deny the election results, but also at Mr. Trump himself.

For Trump supporters and QAnon believers, the cognitive dissonance in this moment is frightening to behold. . . . That is just one example of the long-term effects of an endless stream of propaganda, conspiracy and lies. But there are so many. Here’s a short list from just the past few weeks:

·         A group of at least 13 Republican senators and more than 100 Republican House members said they would refuse to accept President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

·         The president of the United States was caught on tape for over an hour angrily spouting QAnon conspiracy theories about voter fraud in an attempt to pressure Georgia state officials to overturn the election results.

·         In Nashville, federal investigators announced they are looking into evidence that suggests the Christmas bombing suspect believed in lizard people and other far-fetched conspiracy theories.

Each example is concerning on its own. Taken together, these events show a country in crisis. As a reluctant chronicler of our poisoned information ecosystem, to me none of this is very surprising. It is the culmination of more than five years of hatred, trolling, violent harassment and conspiracy theorizing that has moved from the internet’s underbelly to the White House and back again.

For years now, professional grifters, trolls, true believers and political opportunists have sowed conspiratorial lies, creating intricate and dangerous alternate realities. We are now witnessing the reaping. It is likely to get worse.

There’s no easy solution to our current crisis, in part because there’s no one culprit. Donald Trump’s half-decade assault on the truth has played an outsize role. So have social media platforms and pro-Trump outlets like Fox News. The mainstream press has also struggled, especially earlier in the Trump era, to counter disinformation and not amplify lies and conspiracies.

But what is perhaps most frightening is that the alternate reality that many Trump supporters and anti-vaxxers and QAnon believers cling to doesn’t exist — a fact that sooner or later will avail itself to many true believers. And it is at that moment of cognitive dissonance — the moment the bubble begins to burst — that the plausible danger that experts have been warning about for years becomes real.

Everyone from Trump on down who have trafficked in knowing, deliberate lies - think Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley for starters - needs to be held accountable and, when possible, punished.