I believe the story of U.S. politics in the Trump era is partly a tale of marks refusing to believe they’ve been conned. An example: my sister recently had a conversation with a MAGA relative who expressed a belief so incandescently stupid that I was momentarily taken aback.
In response to my sister’s query, our relative said he trusted Trump as president to put the country’s interests above his own in a national emergency. At least more than any other option, including Biden.
I’ll understand completely if you assume the person who said this is a blithering idiot, but I know otherwise. The thing is he’s prideful, and he refuses to admit he’s been conned.
Despite copious evidence to the contrary, he chooses to believe every other politician in the country is an even more rapacious crook than Donald Trump rather than accepting what’s glaringly obvious at this point — that Trump supporters have been taken in.
It’s a goddamn irritating dynamic. But apparently sometimes even poor judges of character and insight-free propaganda consumers wake up all on their own without a liberal blood relative beating some sense into their fucking heads.
Here’s an example in the form of a newly enlightened far-right school board member who ran on an anti-woke platform and then discovered who the real manipulators are. Most of the folks commenting here understood what the oligarchs were up to way back in 1999, but better late than never? (Texas Tribune)
When Courtney Gore ran for a seat on her local school board in 2021, she warned about a movement to indoctrinate children with “leftist” ideology. After 2 1/2 years on the board, Gore said she believes a much different scheme is unfolding: an effort by wealthy conservative donors to undermine public education in Texas and install a voucher system in which public money flows to private and religious schools.
Why did Gore run to overturn an indoctrination scheme that she later discovered didn’t really exist? It sounds like she genuinely believed the bullshit about children being exposed to Marxist and anti-Christian propaganda. That’s a sharp contrast to the cynical Republican political operatives who found Moms for Liberty-type groups — they know they’re lying to gain political power.
Anyhoo, here’s to waking up, however late the hour.
Open thread!