A Donald Trump supporter holds up a large “Q” sign ahead of a rally in 2018. “Q” represents QAnon, a conspiracy theory group. (Photo by Rick Loomis/Getty Images)
Contentious political factions are nothing new in the United States. John Adams once wrote that during the American Revolution, the country was roughly divided into three groups – those who were pro-independence, those who wanted to remain part of the British Empire, and those who didn’t give a damn.
Less than a century later, the nation fought a terrible civil war that killed up to 2% of its entire population. And of course, in the 16 decades since, the nation has been riven by numerous bitter debates – over race, over civil and human rights, over religion, over the economy, over immigration, over human reproduction, and over war and the nation’s role in the world.
In a nation so vast and diverse, it would be a big surprise if such divides weren’t a regular part of the landscape.
All that said, it’s hard not to see the present era as one in which a longstanding and enormously important national consensus is being undermined and wrongfully endangered. What’s more, tragically, unlike so many past divides that were at least rooted in genuine, real-world facts on the ground, this one is the byproduct of a massive national delusion that’s rooted in lies and disinformation.
At issue, of course, is the sanctity of the elections by which we choose our leaders.
For nearly two-and-a-half centuries, Americans have maintained a broad national faith in the electoral process. This isn’t to say that some elections – particularly at the state and local levels — haven’t been plagued by dishonesty. The 19th Century is rife with stories of stuffed ballot boxes and voters who were plied with liquor, cash, or both.
But especially in the modern era, as communications and technology have advanced, Americans across the political spectrum rightfully came to accept the general honesty and legitimacy of the vote counting process.
Even during the momentous Bush v. Gore clash of 2000 that took a partisan U.S. Supreme Court ruling to decide the status of a Florida recount, the nation managed to proceed with relative calm. To be sure, the divide was sharp and partisan, but for the most part, Americans ascribed their differences to competing points of view – not wild and paranoid conspiracy theories.
Today, tragically, things are very different.
Thanks, in the main to a relentless drumbeat of lies and disinformation about the 2020 presidential election and the honesty of U.S. elections generally spewed by one very prominent individual and his supporters, a sizable segment of the American public has become detached from a once powerful and vitally important national consensus, and in some instances, reality itself.
The disastrous result: three weeks out from a hotly contested national election, millions of voters now believe, falsely, that the electoral process cannot be trusted.
And it’s hard to overstate what a tragedy this is.
Not only do such lies promote distrust in elections, but they also feed a no less paranoid and toxic distrust in public institutions, generally.
As the Washington Post reported Monday, this kind of delusional thinking has been on sad display in western North Carolina in recent days where, “Federal emergency response personnel on Saturday had employees operating in hard-hit Rutherford County, N.C., stop working and move to a different area because of concerns over armed militia’ threatening government workers in the region.” WRAL reported that one alleged threat maker has actually been arrested.
But wait, it gets worse. As multiple news outlets have also reported, recent weather disasters have given rise in right-wing circles to the remarkably delusional claim that federal government officials used some kind of imaginary technology to literally direct the paths of Hurricanes Helene and Milton so as to enhance the devastation they produced.
Seriously — they’ve really said this out loud.
Indeed, the national media watchdog group Media Matters reported Monday that, “Members of former President Donald Trump’s ‘inner circle,’ including Lara and Eric Trump,” are scheduled to appear at an event in Johnston County late this week that will feature purveyors of these absurdly delusional lies.
You got that? The same people who repeatedly blast the Biden administration for all manner of supposed incompetencies and lack of attention to detail in managing every aspect of the government, claim that it also somehow managed to defy the laws of physics by pulling off one of the most secretive and monstrously diabolical schemes in human history
As President Biden said last week in response to Donald Trump’s repeated lies about the federal and state responses to Helene and Milton “get a life, man!”
Of course, all of this would be laughable were it not for the massive confusion, anxiety and threats of violence it’s producing right now, and could continue to produce.
Seventy-five years ago, in his dystopian novel “1984,” George Orwell imagined and warned of a totalitarian state that would control its citizenry by force feeding it outrageous fictions manufactured by a so-called “Ministry of Truth.” In 2024, this role is being fulfilled skillfully and persistently by a loud and well-financed collection of private actors – groups and individuals that are working hard to take their talents and lies to the seat of government.