I’d hazard a guess that few if any in this group watched the entire day of US Capital police and Washington, DC police officers testifying (Monday, 08/27) as to their recollections of the US Capital assault by Trump true believers on 6 January. You all work for a living and it’s unlikely you had the time and energy to sit around and watch TV all day. Well, I did sit around and watch it and I have some observations.

First of all, CNN played the video of Trump’s speech exhorting his “Base” to advance on the US Capital to protest the fact that the election was “stolen” from him in 2020. 

“If you don’t fight like hell you’re not 

going to have a country anymore”

He clearly knew there were people in that crowd who were ready to and intended to be violent and he certainly did nothing to discourage it. The rowdy crowd quickly proceeded to the Capital building immediately after his speech. He not only did nothing to discourage it, he strongly hinted it should happen, and BTW he did not accompany them to the Capital building. He hopped in a car and rode back to his office where he watched the carnage on TV, refusing multiple requests to defuse the riot.

After the riot cooled off, multiple congress personalities opined that Trump should have done something to quell this disaster, including Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. On January 12, 2021, McConnell supported impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol, apparently believing doing so make it would easier for Republicans to purge the party of Trump and rebuild the party. Shortly thereafter, on May 28, 2021, McConnell voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the January 6 Capitol attack. Shortly after the riot, Kevin McCarthy visited Trump at his Mar-a-lago resort to kiss the ring and shortly thereafter released a statement that read in part, “Today, President Trump is committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022.  

BTW, the two Republicans seated in the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex, Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney both publically named Donald Trump as a responsible progenitor for the riot. Otherwise, The GOP response has been to minimize or scoff at the occurrence. Unfortunately, the current Republican Party understands that, for whatever reason, the only person able to energize their Base is Trump, and they are now beholden to him and his whims because of his conspiracy theories embraced by a poorly informed “Base”. Instead, they are using his “Big Lie” as the reason to pass draconian laws they can use to hang on to power by instituting roadblocks for voters that don’t vote for them.

That said, the objective evidence that this was, indeed, a genuinely violent and frightening partisan mob is indisputable. There was a hastily constructed gallows erected outside the Capital building accompanied by chants to “Hang Pence” (for doing his constitutional duty instead of illegally installing Trump back into the Presidency). Once inside the building, the mob chanted “Find Pelosi” with an obvious intent to do her harm. Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence were both hustled to safety by the same platoon of officers that were beaten up by rioters. 

Police officers trying to protect the Capital were beaten unmercifully (on camera), some dragged down flights of concrete stairs by their feet with their heads banging on each stair. Others lying on the ground kicked and stomped with heavy boots, pounded with flagpoles, bats, hockey sticks, timbers, pipes and other objects. Toxic substances were sprayed in their faces. One of the uniformed officers was repeatedly crushed between two doors screaming out in severe pain.

How could this happen?  The answer directly revolves around Trumps true believer “Base” and their propensity to embrace “The Big Lie”, propagated by Trump, actually before the 2020 election, that if he lost, it would be because the election would have been rigged against him. Insurance if it actually happened. That if it were not for the illegal manipulation of votes in several battleground states, he would have won big. Of course, when all the data is examined, this is nonsense as attested by hard looks at all the votes in all 50 states (no evidence of any vote fraud) and two looks by the SCOTUS (no evidence to support any kind of fraud). In order for this conspiracy theory to be true, all 50 states and the SCOTUS would have had to actively collude and there would have to be a paper trail (impossible). 

Seems like that evidence is strong enough to put an end to the drama, but two important facts about Trumps cadre of true believers must be remembered. 

1.  The true believers are groomed to believe anything Trump says with no need of any convincing evidence to support any of it. Trump’s word transcends any other form of media. All other forms of media criticizing Trump are lies crafted by malignant left wing to unfairly discredit him.

2.  90% of the evidence implicating Trump’s intentional lies and misinformation come from CNN and MSNBC, sites that no true believer would ever watch. So the reviews of all the books portraying Trump as incompetent by virtually anyone that’s ever come in contact with him and interviews of all those people are never absorbed by any self-disrespecting true believer. The only truth is Trump’s truth (and, of course, Fox News).

Now, this inevitably brings up the “way back when” etiology of “The Big Lie”. In order to do so, I must reluctantly accede to Godwin’s Law- “The longer an internet argument goes on, the higher the probability becomes that something or someone will be compared to Adolf Hitler”. But, there is simply no other coherent way to understand “The Big Lie” than to take it all the way back to the beginning, so hold your nose, here goes.

Donald Trump and his team have accurately followed the playbook of Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the National Socialist German Workers Party (the Nazi party), and later the Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda for Germany from 1933–1945. This is the man that expertly directed the Nazi propaganda machine, turning perfunctory fibs into grand displays of might and power, prompting the population to believe in what was then known as “The Big Lie”. 

Disinformation is a necessity for Trump as it was for Goebbels. The best description of the original “Big Lie” is comes from an OSS psychological profile of Goebbels at the peak of his prowess. Hitler’s primary rules were: 

“Never admit a fault or wrong, maintain a list of 

Enemies, (anyone who criticizes you), blame each 

For everything that goes wrong. Never accept blame. 

Never concede that there may be any good in your

Enemy. Always maximize a lie and if you repeat

It frequently enough people will sooner or later 

Believe it”.

These are the main tools of authoritarians and dictators; equally as potent for the Nazis as in our generation of malignant narcissists who would be king. Trump will loudly pontificate some outlandish quip hoping that his enemies will waste time challenging the lie. Opponents will insist on truth but in so doing will continue to repeat the big lie over and over until it becomes a part of the dialog. Once Trump can repetitively convince the populace that any opponents must be anathema to their interests, he can control the narrative, pointing out which news outlets may be speaking the truth (Friends of Trump), and which ones are enemies of the people (Enemies of Trump). 

Once his targeted audience (his Base) accepts his opinions as true without qualification, then he can move on to the concept that only he can personally fix the problems of the populace. Does any of this sound familiar?

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