Valuing Illusion Over Reality
Terry H. Schwadron
Aug. 4, 2023
Even as Donald Trump is facing yet more federal and state criminal counts, his hold on Republican primary voters is reaching invincible proportions, say the newest polls.
Even as congressional Republicans call on witnesses who fall short of putting Joe Biden in the crosshairs of his son’s indefensible reliance on the family name for his own business ventures, the airwaves at Fox and other right-leaning news sites echo with supportive chatter about Biden’s need to withdraw from the presidential race altogether.
And somehow, with one guy seemingly headed for the possibility of jail or at least facing multiple serious felony counts and one guy unable to match economic forecasts that include the price of eggs, we’re being told that the race — more than a year before Election Day — is even despite unhappiness about abortions, climate, culture politics, public health, immigration, or the future of democracy.
Both parties are cherry-picking economic developments alternately to describe a government that either is systematically getting control of inflation rates while maintaining job growth or flatly announcing that the economy and high prices continue to rise out of control.
So, too, the hottest month on record is or isn’t an indicator of climate issues, depending solely on what channel you watch, immigration and rising deportation numbers at the border reflect “an open door” or a measure of federal control. Education, homelessness, housing, and crime prosecutions are weapons of the state or areas that are struggling under myth-spreading by politicians of one stripe or the other.
As we try to focus on new movies or summer vacations or almost anything else, our 2024 elections campaign are playing out as a test of what we want to believe rather than what is verifiable reality.
Really, it is more than annoying that we can’t agree just to take in information before coming to conclusions. Finally, we have succeeded in uniting the country — only about the unreality of reality.
Never-Ending Political Theater
As an example, just this week, the never-ending attack on Hunter Biden as an influence-peddling strawman for his dad culminated in the arrival of another ballyhooed critical witness paraded by House Republicans as a certain political dagger for Biden.
And once again, the closed-door testimony apparently did not deliver on the hype.
Yet the storytelling that followed about the import of the testimony by former Hunter business associate Devon Archer to the House Oversight Committee was being sold as critical of showing that the Vice President had “lied” to the public in insisting he had nothing to do with his son’s business affairs because he greeted unseen business dinner partners of Hunter at repeated times.
Indeed, from multiple accounts, Joe Biden had dozens of calls with his son, some of which occurred while Hunter was with would-be business associates. Archer, who was at these dinners, testified that the content was social banter, not substantive.
Still, it was enough to set off both Republican politicians and Fox and Newsmax commentators about how to interpret the remarks, not about what was said. In other words, it is a depiction of Hunter Biden offering direct access to dad apparently as a draw for his own influence and not evidence of financial reward for Joe Biden, then still vice president, that we are supposed to focus on. It was too easy for the White House to dismiss as partisan blather that overstated the actual testimony.
Fox News published a transcript of the meeting with Archer. It confirms that Archer did say Biden spoke — in vague terms — to business dinner participants, but never said the remarks were about business. More it was evidence of a Biden “brand” that Hunter used for himself.
I found myself in agreement with a questioning Sean Hannity who asked committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., whether the committee would ever come up with evidence. Comer said he sure hopes so.
So, do the rest of us, else this whole continuing pursuit of Hunter Biden makes no sense outside of seeking to dirty up the dad in return for actual Justice Department criminal charges with boatloads of evidence against Trump. Meanwhile, how about we listen to what the witnesses have to say rather than to Fox commentator Jessie Waters telling us what the witness otherwise might have said and his interpretation that the testimony should indicate this is the time for Joe Biden to stand down from running for office again or face immediate impeachment — for something. Let’s let a little reality in, please; it’s bad enough that there are allegations in the air.
Valuing What We Want to Believe
We’re entering in the deep waters of disinformation. Developments in regulation-free artificial intelligence are making possible faked video and audio that pass as believable coming on top of years of undercutting trust and reliance for education and expertise in institutions across the country.
We clearly value illusion over reality to believe what we want to believe.
So, half those polled nationally apparently believes that Trump may well be facing serious criminal charges, but those charges are only the result of a “weaponized” Justice Department that is victimizing Donald Trump. It is stunning only in the number of people who think it is perfectly fine to have a president who may be jailed and the power of right-wing media to have blurred reality.
This is the same Donald Trump who has used $40 million or more in political PAC money to pay for his legal bills and those of other witnesses whom he argues he is not seeking to influence — processes that barely pass a fraud sniff test. This is the same Donald Trump whose own children served in his White House and made hundreds of millions of dollars doing exactly what he suggests Hunter Biden did ineptly.
This is the same Donald Trump who, according to indictments, plotted, conspired and obstructed to overturn lawful election procedures, who hid financial payments, took, and who held unauthorized government documents including hundreds of classified secrets, who conspired and sought to destroy actual evidence as well as, yes, lying to FBI and Justice officials in violation of the federal laws he took an oath to protect. This is the same Donald Trump who even now campaigns to use a weaponized Justice and other enforcement agencies to go after political entities and to wipe away basic blocks of democracy, all in self-promotional efforts. The same impeached Trump wants to withhold military support from Ukraine — again — unless Volodymyr Zelensky joins the effort to throw dirt on Biden, and who threatens Republican senators who aren’t moving toward impeaching Biden — regardless of whether there is any evidence.
Even short of convictions, Trump shows he is ill-suited to return to the White House — despite whatever popularity is reflected in too-early and likely irrelevant polling. Those polls don’t measure turnout and lean heavily on those with land phones who actually take calls from pollsters.
We know that Trump appeals to a grievance-motivated audience of believers in him rather than in policy, elections, or democracy itself. That doesn’t make its reality any easier to square with day-to-day truth.
##