There are two kinds of Donald Trump
lies. One is about facts. The other is about those who call him out on his
fabrications.
An example of the first occurred
July 29, when Trump issued a tweetstorm of lies:
“The Robert Mueller Rigged Witch
Hunt, headed now by 17 (increased from 13, including an Obama White House
lawyer) Angry Democrats, was started by a fraudulent Dossier, paid for by
Crooked Hillary and the DNC. Therefore, the Witch Hunt is an illegal Scam!”
These assertions have all been
contradicted by Trump’s own FBI director and even by GOP congressional leaders.
It’s bad enough when a president of
the United States tells the public nonstop lies. It’s worse when he impugns
those who are pointing out he’s wrong — the second type of Trump lie.
An example of this second category
occurred last week when Trump was speaking to a veterans group. “What you’re
seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” he said.
In other words, you should only
trust me.
Trump is ramping up both kinds of
lies — lies about the facts, and lies about those who are reporting the truth.
Both categories of lies are
dangerous to a democracy. The first misleads the public. The second undermines
the capacity of the public to discover they are being misled.
In the words of George Orwell, “The
Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their
final, most essential command.”
For those who believe both kinds of
lies, Trump (backed by his Fox News propaganda machine) is the only credible
source of information in America. That means he can say anything at all and
remain unaccountable.
In escalating his war on the media,
Trump is also blocking unfriendly reporters from covering him.
Newly installed Deputy
Chief of Staff Bill Shine and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN
correspondent Kaitlan Collins she could not attend Trump’s open-media event in
the Rose Garden because they objected to her questioning of Trump earlier in
the day.
Meanwhile, Trump’s increasing
attacks on the media are causing journalists to worry about their safety. New
York Timespublisher Arthur Sulzberger warned that the attacks were
“contributing to a rise in threats against journalists and will lead to
violence.”
Democracy is imperiled when a
president of the United States tells bald-faced lies. It is doubly imperiled
when a president convinces a portion of the public not to trust anyone who
contradicts him.
As statesman and poet Vaclav Havel put it, “If the main pillar of the system is living a lie, then it is not surprising that the fundamental threat to it is living the truth.”
These two kinds of lies are becoming
more common in Europe as well. Indeed, the central political divide in the West
is no longer right or left as we’ve come to understand the terms since World
War II — emphasizing choice between small or large government.
It is coming to be authoritarianism
based on lies versus democracy based on truth.
Trump’s two kinds of lies are
lending legitimacy to European leaders who are actively suppressing the truth
to entrench their power, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and
Poland’s Law and Justice Party.
Close behind them, although not yet
in power, are France’s Marine Le Pen and Britain’s Nigel Farage. Italy’s new
deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, also falls into this category.
It is tempting to attribute the
public’s willingness to believe lies to a growing disillusionment with global
capitalism, especially the broken promise of higher standards of living.
Despite low unemployment, the median
wage in the United States (adjusted for inflation) is barely higher than it was
in the late 1970s, and economic insecurity is widespread. Europe still suffers
high unemployment.
As in the 1930s, when global
capitalism broke down, economic hardships fuel the rise of demagogues who
direct anger and resentment toward scapegoats such as immigrants and minorities
– lying about them with impunity.
Added to this has been a concerted
effort by Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack democratic institutions
across America and Europe. The aim of his cyber-warfare campaign is to confuse
the public about both the truth and the reliability of truth-tellers.
The logical endpoint to both kinds
of lies is fascism.
Few living today remember the birth
of fascism in Europe and Soviet Russia in the 1930s. Maybe that explains why
the free world seems relatively passive in the face of these current attacks on
democracy and truth.
This is no time for passivity. The
truth is still getting through to most people. But in sharp contrast to the
1930s, an American president is now helping lead the charge against it.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration,
for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet
secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including
the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "The Common Good," which is
available in bookstores now. He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, "Inequality
For All." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving
Capitalism," which is streaming now.
