I write on January 6, 2025 (CE).
Today, the United States Congress will certificate Donald J. Trump’s election as president of the United States.
I deeply, passionately disagree with Trump’s policies and the nods to the people to whom he gives power. The rule of the oligarchs and the ring-kissers is here. Trump is a liar, a charlatan, and a convicted felon— with cunning and charisma. But, but, but… he won the 2024 presidential election.
Yet, my particular agony on this day is over the widespread belief in the Big Lie of 2020 and its consequences.
The Big Lie is that Biden “stole” the 2020 presidential election. This is carefully nurtured and poisonous. The Big Lie justified the attempted coup that ended on January 6 with the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol.
What a comment on the Age of Disinformation that I must continue to spell this out.
I choose my words — “attempted coup,” “attempted insurrection” —deliberately. They are accurate. Consult the Final Report: Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. December 22, 2022, 117th Congress, Second Session House Report 117-663. [i] Before reading it, watch again the TV coverage of the assault on the Capitol. Hear again the cries of “Hang Mike Pence.” Empathize with the grief of the families of the police who died after protecting the Capitol from the mob.
Now, on January 6, 2025, the Big Lie has become hub in a spoke of other lies. They seek to smear the Final Report and its authors, especially Liz Cheney. Smear? How moderately I write. Perhaps I should more politely write “election interference” rather than “attempted coup.” This hub and spoke of lies seeks to rename and justify the insurrection— for now and for the history that Trump and Trumpians wish to install as well. Like others, I am waiting for Trump, newly empowered as president, to pardon the insurrectionists, perhaps even the most violent ones.
I cannot justify all of the personal behavior of the prosecutors of the Georgia State case against a number of plotters and propagators of the coup. A Georgia State Appeals Court has now removed the lead prosecutor, Fani Willis, the Fulton County DA, from the “election interference” case. Yet, the law again and again has seemed far more truthful than the Big Lie.
Truth can often seem to be a chameleon. Yet here the truth is here, as strong and stark as a big oak tree in the winter. The Big Lie is a lie. The attempted coup was an attempted coup.
As an American citizen, I should be glad about peaceful transfer of power. As an American citizen, I hope millions of others will, like me, seek to disable the chain saws of propaganda that bite into the oak tree of truth.
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[i] Available govinfo.gov/GPO-J6-REPORT
Catharine Stimpson 