Will The January 6th Hearings Awaken Trumpers From Their Spell?
"Tonight, I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain."
Liz Cheney (R) Wyoming.
Millions of Americans have fallen under Trump's spell that reached a frenzy during the attempted Coup d’etat of January 6th. 2021.
Trump’s unfocused hate and repeated lies about the outcome of the 2020 election have captured millions of Americans. They are convinced that patriotism equals loyalty to Trump. They refuse to accept the iron clad proof that Biden won, simply because Trump won’t accept it.
I’ve seen Trump’s big lie change people that I've known since I was a child. This is happening all over America.
It began in 2011 with Trump’s false narratives about immigrants and his blinding hate for Obama. Eventually, his hate filled rhetoric of racism and division attracted millions of supporters. He replaced hope and confidence with fear and anger. For some, it turned into unfocused rage.
Trump eventually rose to power by popularizing hate. He blended hate with racism and bigotry to win over poor and ill informed whites. He never mentioned their bad life choices, but he always seemed to include it when criticizing people of color. He never talked about the institutional systems that trapped millions of “others” in poverty and he certainly never blamed his own billionaire class for anything.
The negative feelings and emotions he planted in the minds of Americans have taken deep roots. They grew until they controlled the behavior of the most impressionable Americans.
Trump made it ok to shift the blame for life’s failures to powerless “others.” He played his followers and the press like a fiddle and they danced for him.
He taught supporters to ignore his criminal behavior and the greed of his fellow oligarchs.
He taught millions to punch down at “others” and how to use them as foils to feel better about themselves.
100% fealty to Trump is always the price of membership. It begins with the elimination of empathy for the poor. It demands hate and disgust for immigrant populations which leads to their dehumanization.
By January 6th 2021, he was ready to close the deal. It was almost “Mission accomplished.”
Millions of Americans have fallen under Trump’s spell. They believed his lies so unquestionably that some of them took up arms and tried to overthrow the US Government by taking over the Capitol and killing the Vice President and members of Congress.
Our nation has been deeply wounded by Trump’s failed Coup d’ etat. Thankfully, he and his fellow insurrectionists were so incompetent that we have another chance to save democracy and recover the soul of America.
The soul of America is best described on the foundation of the Statue of Liberty.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Does this quote make you feel anger or empathy? If it makes you angry, it proves you have fallen under the spell of Trump and your anger is helping him rip apart the institutions of government that have protected you since your birth.
If the words on the Statue of Liberty are comforting, and they cause you to feel empathy, then you are aligned with the powerful lodestar that makes America great.
In answer to your title question: no, they will not; if they were going to awaken, they would have already done that. They are dug in, and they do not want to admit they were wrong from the start.
I never paid much attention to trump until 2016. One of the first things I saw was the footage of him mocking a disabled reporter. That was so far outside the rules of civilized behavior and common courtesy, I though it would be a death blow. That it wasn't proved how far gone his supporters are.
I shouldn't have been surprised. These are the same people who changed common courtesy into "political correctness" and derided it. They were ripe for exploitation by trump.