Truth and Lies

We speak inside our circles, to those who we know share our views and our interpretations of the world. We watch our channels, read our websites, and nod knowingly to our own truths. We carry forward as two distinct, unrelated and uncommunicative countries, living side by side without intersecting except in shouts from across drawn lines.

The election demonstrated the intransigence of the distances between us, as record numbers of partisans showed up on both sides, a display not so much of patriotism and civic duty, but of an angry intention to deny the other side a victory. 155 million of us voted against someone as much or more as we voted for someone else, and in keeping with the expression of a negative, neither side seems truly satisfied as the result appears to be a government as split as the country it governs.

And yet...

As much as there appears to be a balance, there is not. The tendency is to say that there are two sides, but there are not. There is truth, and there is lie... and what we are seeing cannot be rationalized with a false equivalency. It is not equal.

The President has waged a war against the institution of democracy, as represented by our votes. He laid a foundation for his argument over years of allegations, none proven, none intended to be proven, so that when the time came he could attempt to subvert that institution and make it moot. This is not subject to partisan argument, it is demonstrable. It is fact.

The President's lawyers have argued 32 times in front of courts of law, professing to be the defenders of the faith. 31 times the courts have found against them, with the sole victory a technicality about the spacing of observers. Those are the cases that they haven't withdrawn prior to hearing, the ones that they didn't recant. The angry assertions of massive fraud, of conspiracy, of malfeasance have never been supported by anything solid such as evidence, or proof, or even reasonable cause.

In point of fact, when asked by judges whether these lawyers are alleging fraud, or anything related to it, they have -- under oath and penalty of perjury -- stated clearly (as did Guiliani yesterday in Michigan) that no, sir, they are not alleging fraud or conspiracy. The teams of lawyers sent out by the President have all resigned when faced with prodding to make statements in court that they could not defend, leaving only the last straggling amateurish efforts to carry the fight.

There is no more substance to the allegations than there was a health care plan in the comically huge book tossed to a reporter by the press secretary, just another prop to defuse a legitimate question. The allegations of criminal conspiracy on a global scale, involving assorted countries and thousands of Republican and Democratic politicians, judges, officials and citizen volunteers are fantasy; if there was any substance to any of it, the President -- supported by his Justice Department, his FBI and CIA, and in fact the world community that desperately needs a solvent and functional democracy in America -- would have been able to produce what he needed to retain his position. The greatest intelligence sources in the world, the largest legal force on the planet, the full power and resources of the richest country in the world could not find any evidence to share, to use in defense of the President.

There is no equivalency. There is one side who is operating in truth, and the other in lies. There is no argument to be made any more, since the time for that argument has passed with humiliating consistency and result.

So, where does that leave us? The nation is in it's quadrennial period of vulnerability as one administration hands off to the next, a time when adversaries have tested us before. The pandemic -- that which was a hoax to vanish as the election ended, something ginned up only to harm the President's reelection chances -- is raging and tearing at the heart of the country, but the critical ability to supply aid to the people is being crippled by the White House's refusal to coordinate.

The Defense Department has lost much of its leadership to random firings. The leader of the cybersecurity division, perhaps the most critical element of that defense, has been ousted because he publicly disagreed with the President's lies. The Senate has gone home, the international community is holding its breath, and the President has been taking a mental health week or two, without commentary or action except with his putter.

There are two months until the new president and his administration will gain official status. Two months for our adversaries to consider our weakness, exploit our dysfunction. There are two months for the pandemic to impersonate the wild fires out west and destroy everything that it can reach.

The side that has the power to do something positive, to secure our windows and doors and pump water into the fires is absorbed in lies. The side that holds the truth is outside of power, outside of the buildings and institutions where our strength and security sits. It is two months before they switch positions, and we have to ask what those days will cost America.

We, the people, are not both right. There is a right and wrong, a yes and a no, a lie and a truth. It is not hard to find out what is the truth -- the lawyers have already testified to it, the judges have already rendered a verdict. All that is left is for everyone to open their eyes and see what is real, then to join voices in demanding a simple thing -- that the liars stop lying, and the government govern an America that is terribly, terribly vulnerable.

There are two months for America to survive. It is not the time for willful blindness. It is time for the truth.