When Telling the Truth is Deemed Partisan
The body cam footage of the officers who responded to Paul Pelosi's 911 call after an intruder broke in has been released. And while you might think this means the conspiracy theories around what really happened the day David DePape broke into the Pelosi home have ended, they have not. Over at The Present Age, Parker Malloy notes that the body cam footage has only exacerbated existing conspiracies instead of squashing all conspiracies. Malloy suggests this is more proof that the Right has a conspiracy problem.
In her piece, Malloy traces all the ways conspiracies have become a problem on the Right, pointing out that there is nothing to gain from ignoring wild stories and a boatload of money to be made. And while this may seem like a problem for the Right, there is something those of us who care about the truth can do: stop promoting people who see no problem with voice baseless and harmful conspiracies.
Malloy notes that this does happen: "CBS News' Margaret Brennan received kudos for noting that '70 percent of the House GOP members denied the results of the 2020 election,' and asking Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) why he was 'elevating people who are denying reality like that.'" But Malloy points out that there is one vital thing that Margaret Brennan did not bring up with McCarthy, why is he comfortable elevating a denial of reality to gain power? Because McCarthy is one of the 139 House members who objected to certifying the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021, after the invasion of the Capitol.
Here Malloy's article reminds me of something I have seen almost everywhere lately: there is nothing to gain from being in the middle of truth and un-truth. You can find people saying this about Jesus because he picked sides, and folks like Malloy saying this about politics. The point here is that the truth picks a side. It is true that Joe Biden won the 2020 election, and anyone who disagrees has been misled or is being misleading, including the newest Speaker of the House. David DePape is indeed a Trump supporter who was trying to get Nancy Pelosi to cause her harm. And it should not be difficult to affirm these statements because they are true.
And while it may seem like saying, "the truth takes a side" is a call for more polarization, it should not be polarizing to say that the sky is blue because that is the truth. Anyone who wishes to argue about the color of the sky or whether Biden won the election is not dealing with reality. They are, as Malloy discusses, either seeking to be fed what they already believe or looking to gain power from such claims. And to pretend that someone who presents "alternative facts" is merely putting forth another viewpoint is dangerous.
There can, and should, still be room for nuance when we discuss what truth means or matters of opinion. But one of the most dangerous new tactics on the Trumpist Right is to lie about facts when you don't like them simply because you don't like them. So long as we are content to act as though these lies provide a moderating view of the truth, we will continue to struggle with polarization. The truth takes a side, and we should all be on it.
4 More Things
1) Over at the New York Times, Thomas Edsall has an opinion piece about how the resentment that fuels the Republican party is now coming from rural areas and not the suburbs. The suburbs, long a bastion for Republican voters, are now becoming more reliable Democratic strongholds. And what is left, Edsall points out, is the shrinking rural areas as the new Republican base.
2) The Washington Post has a must-read profile of a man you've likely not heard of but who helped stop Trump's would-be coup. Michael Luttig, a judge whose fingerprints are all over the Supreme Court even though he never got to be a Justice, helped provide cover for Mike Pence to certify the 2020 election results and is still working to put an end to Trump's political career.
3) Pew has new research that shows that while the Freedom Caucus posts a small share of tweets, they get a large share of engagement. How is this possible? Their tweets are primarily negative, meant to rile up their base and provoke outrage.
4) In a Bulwark exclusive poll, Sarah Longwell has found that while a majority of GOP voters would like to move on from Trump, 28% of the party is still ready to support him. What's most shocking from Longwell's research is that 28% of the party is prepared to support Trump even if he runs as an independent. So even if the GOP is ready to move on, many voters don't seem resigned to let it.