MAY 28, 2021 – Historically, the power of political leaders emanates from the people who are subject to that power, voluntarily or involuntarily. Lust and fear, meanwhile, are the central ingredients in the relationship between the governed and those who govern. In a dictatorship, fear runs two ways. The dictator who lusts for power fears the masses, but that same dictator controls the masses by instilling fear. Lust and fear are afoot in democracies too. Elective office attracts people who lust for power, then fear its loss once the power is attained.
In current America, enter You-Know-Who and Republicans in Congress. Their lust and fear is a devil’s tango. You-Know-Who lusts for fool’s gold and sycophantic adoration by unquestioning masses. (Having no understanding of history, he has no capacity to lust for historical “greatness.”) He fears the slightest hint of disloyalty because of its threat to his lusts. His minions in Congress are driven by varying combinations of lust for power and fear of losing it if they deny his falsehoods.
The source of Congressional Republicans’ fear: 74 million people who voted for You-Know-Who, despite four years of daily falsehoods, incompetence, and gross corruption. “His Base,” as they’re called, accomplish this by blind loyalty to You-Know-Who. The power of that blind loyalty, in turn, is fueled by the Base-members’ own fear of paper tigers created largely by the likes of (lustful) Fox and QAnon.
Lust for power and fear of losing it torpedoed the Senate bill for establishment of an independent 1/6 commission. The official Republican argument against the commission was that the Democrats would use it for political advantage. Of course they would (and should!)—to counter the Party of Falsehoods if, as many assume, the commission’s objective report were to lay blame at the feet of You-Know-Who and his most militant supporters—inside and outside of Congress. (Though may the record reflect Republican Congressman John Katko’s yeoman achievement of extracting major concessions from House Democrats, as directed by Republican House Leader McCarthy—only to be thrown under the bus by Republican House Leader McCarthy.)
Present conditions—74 million voters opposing an independent 1/6 commission and embracing the Big Lie that fueled the Capitol insurrection and challenges Biden’s electoral legitimacy—endanger the country. The demise of You-Know-Who won’t alter our country’s trajectory. All too ready to succeed him are soulless people like Cruz, Gaetz, Greene, Hawley, McCarthy, and McConnell, propelled by Republicans who’d vote to censure their own for the slightest deviation from blind denialism. If four of the aforementioned Congresspersons are smarter than You-Know-Who, they’re that much more dangerous, rendered ever more so by nonsense 74 million voters strong.
Much can and will happen in the world between now and November 2022, but if the Republican Party (in name; “Falsehood Party” in substance), gains control of House or Senate—perish the thought of both—the nation will find itself in the most perilous times since . . . You-Know-When.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
