It is a matter of history, a pattern followed by most autocrats and their zealous followers, that “truth” is what the leaders say it is… not what objective facts determine. With leaders with autocratic tendencies, contradicting the autocrat’s view of history – folks like Genghis Khan, many Middle Eastern and European royals, Hitler, Mussolini, modern People’s Republic of Chinese, Russian and North Korean leaders – often resulted in imprisonment, frequent torture and death. It is a sure sign of autocracy, one that should put us all on red alert, when facts are considered unpatriotic and insidious, but mythology is treated as if it were the gospel truth.
While the United States, like most countries, has never been free of baseless conspiracy theories with thousands, if not millions, of followers, modern conservative America has only recently legitimized some of the most toxic conspiracy theories imaginable. Like the QAnon belief in a vast network of pedophiles within the leadership of the Democratic Party aiming to supplant the bona fide government in Washington.
Recognizing that this once seemingly marginal segment of the American electorate represented an untapped constituency, Donald Trump smartly embraced, directly or indirectly, a vast portion of racist, conspiracy theorist and extremist views that defined what was to become his “base.” It was this constituency that gave him the margin of victory in 2016 and allowed his thoroughly unsustainable claim to have won the 2020 election. It was almost as if he reached a devil’s bargain: I’ll support your mythological conspiracy theories if you’ll support mine. But even as the facts were seemingly irrefutable… they were refuted by a staggering number of his supporters, and the values and platforms of virtually the entire body of elected Republican officials became “whatever Trump wants.”
A simple review of objective facts: Of the 538 Electoral College Votes, Joe Biden won a staggering 74 more such votes than did Donald Trump, totaling more than 7 million more popular votes and winning well over 60 judicial rulings (many including judges where were Trump appointees, including the Supreme Court) that determined that widespread election fraud was completely non-existent in the November Presidential election… zero rulings finding such fraud.
And still, red state legislative bodies, alleging voter fraud, are passing voter nullification or suppression laws to prevent traditional Democratic minority voters from casting their ballots. Neutral appointed and elected state election officials are resigning in unprecedented numbers from a tsunami of death threats, allegations of criminal misconduct and complete rejection of their non-partisan efforts. There is hope among the GOP that these neutral players can be replaced with Trump-biased officials who will never certify an election result, regardless of the actual vote, that contradicts a Trump-desired election result.
But as this mass denial seems to be unending, if not escalating, it is interesting to understand the day-to-day world of Donald Trump’s life in Mar-a-Lago (pictured above), Palm Beach opulence in red state Florida. What Karl Rove has described as Trump’s “Fortress of Solitude.” Joshua Green, writing for the June 10th Bloomberg Business week, provides some livid details:
“Tossed from the White House, banished from Facebook and Twitter, Trump has never seemed more distant from public consciousness. But while he can’t broadcast out, those same platforms offer a surprisingly intimate glimpse into his new life, thanks to the prolific posting of the club’s guests. At every moment of his day, Trump is bathed in adulation. When he enters the dining room, people stand and applaud. When he returns from golf, he’s met with squeals and selfie requests. When he leaves Mar-a-Lago, he often encounters flag-waving throngs organized by Willy Guardiola, a former professional harmonica player and anti-abortion activist who runs weekly pro-Trump rallies in Palm Beach. ‘Give me four hours and I can pull together 500 people,’ Guardiola says. Trump recently invited the self-proclaimed ‘biggest Trump supporter in the country’ for a private consultation at his club.
“In this gilded Biosphere, Trump encounters no one who isn’t vocally gratified by his presence. When he speaks extemporaneously, so many guests post footage that you can watch the same weird scene unfold from multiple vantage points, like the Japanese film Rashomon. Trump seems so comfortable, the journalist and Instagram sleuth Ashley Feinberg has noted, that he’s taken to wearing the same outfit for days on end. Blue slacks, white golf shirt, and red MAGA cap are to the former president what the black Mao suit is to his old frenemy Kim Jong Un. Club members say his new lifestyle agrees with him. ‘Presidents when they finish always look so much older,’ says Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers LLC, who lives three doors down from Mar-a-Lago. ‘Not true for Trump.’
“He’ll show up to anything. In recent weeks, Trump has popped into engagement parties and memorial services. A Mar-a-Lago member who recently attended a club gathering for a deceased friend was surprised when Trump sauntered in to deliver remarks and then hung around, apparently enjoying himself. This insular feedback loop, amplified by the worshipful validation he gets for doing Newsmax or OAN TV hits, doesn’t appear likely to diminish as he settles into his New Jersey golf club for the summer and prepares to resume his trademark rallies. ‘Donald Trump needs the adulation of the crowd the way you or I need oxygen to breathe,’ says Michael Cohen, his estranged former lawyer. By all accounts, Trump’s life after the White House doesn’t resemble that of a typical ex-president so much as a foreign monarch cast into exile—like Napoleon at Elba, but with golf and a bigger buffet.”
Living in this environment, surrounded by sycophants who idolize him, it is little wonder that Trump makes pronouncements that he expects to be reinstated as President in August. His “legal team” supports this belief even as there is no constitutionally valid path to cause this result. And the leadership of the Republican Party is now unwilling to accept the election reality or that the January 6th assault on the Capitol was an insurrection and not simply a peaceful tourism event, for fear of alienating what they believe is such an election-required constituency – Trump’s base – by dealing with objective reality. If they cannot nullify the results of the 2020 election, they want to be damned sure that votes opposing their position are never cast or counted against them ever again.
I’m Peter Dekom, and not since the Civil War has American democracy faced such an existential challenge.
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