Whether a President whose son in law is Jewish can be a fascist or not I’ll leave up to others. As I’ve written before such a father-in-law who says nice things about tiki torch carrying thugs shouting the Jews will not replace us is certainly doing his grandchildren no favors.
But there is one thing that Trump shares with all the dictators I was once said to be worse than at a Republican Convention. Stalin, Mao and Hitler. They made their lies a national gospel. The lies however were anything but “good news.”
I wrote in my column: “never has any political party so muzzled lawmakers as has the Trump cult, where any divergence from the former president and his many lies means a one-way ticket to oblivion.” The Trump big lie of a stolen election is now a lie his followers have swallowed. In doing so they are as wrong as Southerners were before the Civil War when they said the slaves were grateful to be their slaves. Collective blindness is a feature of the nations Hitler, Stalin and Mao brought about. Half of America has swallowed lie after lie and those lies have the blessing of ministers. Our religious life is as corrupt as the Republican party now and it may never recover.
I knocked a book I haven’t read the best selling memoire of Trump’s pick for Vice President. I wrote a book too and it wasn’t written as a memoire or even as an autobiography.
I was unwilling out of stubbornness to leave the Republican Party for years. One consequence of this was that the reputation the Republicans were developing was laid at my feet – guilt by association. When I was invited to write for the tabloid the Duluth Weekly which I always call the Duluth Reader I had a platform to explain myself to anyone interested in reading my then every other week columns.
Many were anecdotes of my life. I wrote them because I hoped they were interesting but also because I wanted readers who disliked my Republican politics to see me through the anecdotes as a fully fleshed out person not a character. I’ve gotten precious little feedback on my book. I am only aware of one person, my brother, who has read it through. Others who have the book in their possession have not reached out to offer me reviews. I take that as a strong indication that a series of random anecdotes fails the test or two.
One thing I hope does shine through. Candor.
We once were a nation which prided itself on clear sighted ness. The Republican’s half today has a forest in its eyes.
