One of the more curious benefits (or perhaps “obligations” is the more apt description) of working as a journalist for four decades is that you hear a lot of campaign speeches. From small-town mayors to big-time presidential candidates, one gets accustomed to the familiar script whether it’s a Democrat, a Republican or third-party candidate.
You expect politicians to put their best foot forward, sharply criticize their opponents, and even gloss over their shortcomings. Candidates will routinely stretch the truth.
And then every once in a while, you hear a political figure willing to tell it like it is, defy his or her party and perhaps even core constituents. This kind of truth-telling is rare.
But even more uncommon is the exact opposite — a political candidate so craven, so untethered to the truth, so disinterested in actual governance or policymaking, and so lacking in character that he will do or say anything to get elected.
And it’s entirely possible that in less than a month, Americans may vote to return such a candidate to the Oval Office.
Last week, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, joined Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Ripon, Wisconsin, often referred to as the birthplace of the GOP.
Here, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and a frequent critic of Trump’s role on Jan. 6, announced she’d be voting for Democrat Harris. Her argument wasn’t about ideology; it was about morality. She described former President Donald Trump as “petty,” “vindictive” and “cruel.” Trump promptly responded on social media by calling Cheney a “low IQ War Hawk.”
I’m not interested in lionizing the Cheney family. The George W. Bush-Dick Cheney administration was not exactly a pillar of truth about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in the buildup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
But, as most in the GOP have demonstrated over and over again, it’s simply much easier to look the other way when Trump starts talking about issues from “stolen elections,” or how the country is on the verge of economic depression or how his Democratic opponents are “heavy into the transgender world,” to how there have been 20 million individuals coming over the border illegally during the current administration. All of this is false and easily disproved. But does anyone care at this point?
The Republican nominee for president is all about emotions. He wants people to be scared, angry, and resentful. And when his frequent inaccuracies are pointed out, he blames the “mainstream media” for having “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Other Republicans have jumped on that bandwagon. Ask a major figure in the GOP who won the last presidential election. Even House Speaker Mike Johnson is unwilling to say on network television that Joe Biden won in 2020.
This is not normal. And what’s scariest of all is how many people I’ve encountered are buying into it. They are not discomfited when Trump calls immigrants “vile animals” or when he refers to Harris as stupid, “very dumb,” and “mentally disabled” or even appointed as “border czar,” which she was not. They are willing to believe the world is out to get him.
Look, it’s reasonable to have differing views on important issues. Taxes, for example. Or abortion rights. But the fact that Trump’s campaign pledges would grow the U.S. debt by more than twice as much as his opponent, at least according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, and that Trump is now wavering in his abortion stance after his appointees struck down Roe v. Wade, suggests it’s not about issues. It’s about loyalty. It’s about hate and scapegoating. I’ve never witnessed anything quite like this cult of personality. And that worries me most of all.