Tis The Season For Manipulation

What is the season for manipulation? Tis neither the 4 seasons of baseball, football, basketball or hockey nor the 4 seasons of summer, spring, winter or fall. For our house, the season for manipulation is neither soft butter season nor hard butter season--we don't keep our butter in the refrigerator. I am not referring to Christmas season, that that is a season for manipulation by the dangerous combo of children and advertisers, nor Easter season nor Kwanza season, nor Chanukah season, nor Passover season, nor any other religious season. Rather, the season for manipulation is election season. And this year, our elections are the midterms.

So what we have is this. Some hoping to be elected to office are resorting to all kinds of ways of playing with the truth in order to persuade us to vote for them, or at least not vote for their opponents. But in the end, these same people who are playing with the truth are hoping to get our votes so they can represent us at. We should let that fact sink in. Those wishing to represent us so that they can pass laws that control us, determine how much to tax us, and decide how to spend the money we paid in taxes are trying to manipulate us by playing with the truth. And that should raise red flags for any candidate who does such things.

Quite often, we don't take democracy seriously enough. Instead, we are apathetic and show little to no initiative in maintaining our democracy. And, btw, the eventual reward for such an approach to democracy is to lose it. My guess is that if we lose our democracy, we will become a kind of religious oligarchy that we see in Russia where the chief leader  gets to pick who his political opponents are once he has decided that he will be allow them to live.

If you are smart enough to stay away from Twitter, which I am not, you see the manipulation every time you log in. There is always some celebrity or political hack posting some contextless or half-truth or false claim that supports their favorite political position, party, or person running for office. Yes, inflation is high now. The tweets will blame Biden. But inflation is a world problem caused by the pandemic and the war. And if inflation is a world problem, then inflation here would take place regardless of who is the President.

The same goes for the price of energy. Yes, energy prices are high. But that is because of the war. And yet tweets scapegoating Biden for those energy prices fail to mention the war as a factor. And we have to balance our use of energy with the effects of climate change.

One recent tweet I read said that El Paso, Texas is seeing around 2,000 illegal immigrants pass through each day. Of course the tweet provides no documentation supporting such a claim. And the tweet neglects to mention that, according to the CBP, July of this year became the 2nd consecutive month in which there was a decrease in encounters between CBP agents and immigrants along the Southwest border (click here for the source). The August report states that most of the illegal immigration into America's Southwest comes from struggling communist nations such as Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (click here for the sources). The number of illegal immigrants in August was around 2% higher than in July. Of course, some of those nations are struggling as a result of US policies.

Such is the close view of immigration. The long view tells us that Trump did very little in terms of stopping the number of illegal immigrants entering the country (click here for the source). In addition, Biden has done very little that is different from Trump in terms of immigration (click here for the source). Also, there are signs that we have fewer illegal immigrants in the US in 2021 than in 2020 (click here for the source). 

There are other claims made about illegal immigrants and those claims are examples of fear-mongering. One example of those claims is that under Biden, we have open borders. But again, that is not the case. And the fear-mongering that is in messages like that is there to drive voters into the arms of those who participated in or supported the Jan 6, Insurrection, those who sought to steal an election that Trump appointed judges found to be fair,  those who revised voting laws to make it more difficult for minorities to vote, those who embrace QAnon conspiracy theories, and those who rationalize Trump's illegal possession of classified materials, etc. 

Another common theme in the tweets is that Biden has declared war on all who disagree with him. Those tweets came after Biden's speech on MAGA followers. More than one tweet described Biden's speech as dividing the nation or declaring war on the Republican Party.

Of course, Biden wasn't talking about all Republicans in his speech. He was referring specifically MAGA followers. Again, those are the people who denied the election results, denied the seriousness of the pandemic, denied climate change, participated in or supported the Jan 6, Insurrection, have been censoring books and trying to tell businesses what they can say to their employees, and defended Trump's illegal possession of classified documents.

It was clear that Biden was only talking about MAGA followers. And yet, MAGA influencers are lying about whom Biden was referring to by claiming it was about over half of America or about all Republicans.

There is a very hardcore effort being made by MAGA supporters and leaders to paint an overly negative view of the Biden Administration's efforts. And let's face it, Biden is no prize. But what is left unsaid, besides adding context to their accusations that have some resemblance to the truth or admitting that some of their accusations are false, is what is in store for us should MAGA movement members win enough elections. One only needs to go to the state of Florida to find out. In Florida, the governor tried to tell businesses what it could tell its employees about racism, has told schools what what it could teach about racism and gender identity, has sought revenge on those who oppose laws made by the governor, and has denied the seriousness of the pandemic. 

There are some similar efforts in the state of Texas. We see in other state where a MAGA gubernatorial candidate publicly say that he can declare voting machines null and void, We see MAGA moms work to censor books in their states. And with all of that, these same people describe the Biden Administration as being a soft authoritarian regime.

We are being played by MAGA supporters. It isn't that the Dems are not trying to manipulate us to. For example, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in one state helped the most radical Republican candidate win his party's nomination because he thought he had a better chance to beat a radical Republican.

But for the most part, most of the manipulation that has come in the guise of false accusations, half-truths, and claims without context all of which were efforts at fear-mongering are being practiced by MAGA members. And the only way not to be fooled is to be well educated regarding the issues. It is being well educated that allows us to determine whether someone is trying to manipulate one into voting for them or not. And that is what the midterms are going to come down to. Are we going to be well educated enough to recognize when we are being manipulated or are we going to fall for the fear-mongering.

To Tell The Truth? Biden On MAGA

Social media is abuzz about Biden's attack on MAGA. On twitter, it seems that every MAGA supporter framed Biden's comments as an attack on at least half of America. Such a description begs the question that half of America are MAGA followers.  Since not even half of Americans are Republicans and not all Republicans are MAGA followers, it is logical to conclude that the MAGA portrayal of Biden's comments cannot possibly be true. But truth is not a friend to those who want to manipulatively persuade fellow Americans into following them

But what about Biden's claims about MAGA followers? You know, those who twice believed pre-election claims that only a fraudulent election could defeat their candidate, who so passionately embraced conspiracy theories designed to slander their political opponents and inject unwarranted distrust in our institutions, many of whom view Trump as a messianic political savior, who participated in or supported the invasion of the Capitol with the intent of overthrowing a legitimate election, who have sought positions in government in order to control voter participation and vote counting, who have threatened to take elections out of the hands of voters, and who fervently defended Trump's illegal possession of classified documents and how he stored them in unsecured locations at his residence while having foreign guests visit him.

And none of the above includes the two most major MAGA star politicians: Trump and DeSantis. Both of them used their positions in government to try to discredit or even take revenge on their critics and dissenters. Both of them have used their positions in government to censor historical materials about our nation's history which have narratives they don't approve of. Both of them have appointed yes-men people to medical/science positions in government\. And one of them, Trump, to be specific, called the MSM the enemy of the American people and has publicly expressed envy of and/or admiration for tyrannical dictators like Putin, Erdogan, and Jinping. In fact, Trump actually praised Putin for how he had Russian forces attack Ukraine.  And Putin supported the reelection bid of Donald Trump

So was Biden's assessment of MAGA followers wrong? I see no evidence of that. None. Zero. Zip. The evidence supports Biden's portrayal of MAGA followers. So should Biden have said what he said? The answer to that question is more difficult to answer because it all depends on the purpose of making those claims about MAGA followers.

If Biden merely wanted to reveal the threat that the MAGA movement poses to our nation, then Biden was right to tell the truth. 

But if Biden also wanted to avoid marginalizing any group of Americans, then the answer is a clear "NO.' In other words, Biden had his own deplorable moment in publicly denouncing MAGA followers.  In football terms, Biden committed a 'turnover,' a possible momentum changing one. All of the political capital gained from his recent legislative victory, the January 6th hearings, and the revelation of the kinds of documents recovered from Trump's Mar-A-Lago residence was put in harm's way.

But there is another problem with Biden making such public claims about MAGA followers. What Biden did worked as well as trying to tame a wild animal by cornering it. Of course, Biden wasn't trying to control MAGA as much as he was trying to score political points for fellow Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections. But Biden's singling out MAGA as an enemy of democracy was as politically effective as giving William Tell a shotgun to knock off an apple from the top of a person's head. And MAGA opportunists have not been slow at trying to make non-MAGA Republicans feel like victims who need the MAGA movement as a law firm for a class-action lawsuit.

Yes, the MAGA Movement gives every indication of wanting fascism provided that it is one of their people who is at the top. Yes, it was the MAGA Movement that first demonized their political opponents. Yes, it is the MAGA Movement that casts their leader as a Messiah who was hand-picked by God to save us. And yet, those in the MAGA Movement are fellow Americans with each one is made in the image of God.

We need to reach out to the MAGA people by focusing on the actions and rhetoric we object too rather than asking society to marginalize them. We need to point-by-point show where their claims are wrong with the hopes that we can turn some of them around. And we need to listen to their legitimate concerns, while ignoring their conspiracy theory driven fears, that those in the MAGA Movement have. That is how Biden should be speaking to the MAGA Movement.