Does It Matter?

The Toronto Star reported that Donald Trump in the 31 days leading into the midterm elections made 815 false claims.  The Washington Post reported that in the seven weeks prior to the midterms, Mr. Trump made 1,419 false or misleading statements. Does that matter?  Yes, it matters, especially when active duty military personnel are used as pawns in a political stunt based on such lies!  Where’s the caravan, Mr. Trump?  When will the invasion come?  Will you, sir, visit those soldiers along the border on Thanksgiving Day and eat MRE’s with them?  Will you, sir, as one who claims to have done great things of “our military,” find a way to get those VA checks cut for recipients of the GI Bill?  Can’t you, sir, make a deal?

When I say anything about Trump’s deluge of lies to other people, they respond by saying, “All politicians lie at election time.”  Yes, I know that to be true—I also know that all of us lie from time to time.  But Trump’s lies aren’t just during elections, they occur every day and they are “whoppers.”  Does it matter?

While “big new lies” continue after the midterms, we hear nothing now about the caravan, the invasion, the national emergency, the “Middle Easterners” secretly embedded within that caravan,, the “gangs like MS-13,” or the “diseases like Small Pox” or leprosy.  We hear nothing about “George Soros’ secret funding” of the “invaders” now that a horrible mass shooting has occurred in Pittsburgh and pipe bombs were delivered to those named by Mr. Trump in his lie-ladened rallies.

The Huffington Post reported that armed bands of civilian  militia are moving toward the border to help active-duty troops rebuff the migrant caravan.  Newsweek reported “200 unregulated armed militia members [are] currently operating along the southwest border.”  The Washington Post reported that Texas Minutemen militia leader Shannon McGauley said there are 100 volunteers heading to the Rio Grande to block migrants.  These militia leaders echo Trump’s lies that the migrant caravan are “invaders”  “We believe our nation is under attack by foreigners who refuse to accept the rule of law on how to become a citizen of the United States,” one militia leader told Newsweek!  The Albuquerque Journal reported that The Patriots of the Constitution militia put out a call last month for a “full deployment” to make a “stand to secure our border from a mob of migrating immigrants.”  That migrant caravan is mostly just a group of Honduran and Salvadoran dads, mothers, and children in flip-flops fleeing for their lives.

Lies matter.  Those who ignore them and say they don’t matter are deluding themselves.  Lies continue to be told and those who remain silent about them become what Scott Peck called “The People of the Lie.”