Without the big joke, the big lie's challenge to democracy would be ephemeral, not existential.
The lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 election has grown so powerful because it is yoked to an older deception, without which it could not survive: the idea that American politics is, in essence, a joke, and that it can be treated as such without consequence. |
 | | Anthony Eslick |
|
 | By Carlos Lozada |
I joined The New York Times this month as an Opinion columnist, and I have a confession to make right away: I have no takes, hot or otherwise, ready to inflict upon readers, and I lack a trusty ideological lens that I always peer through when looking at the world. Even the label "Opinion columnist," with its implied authority and self-assurance, makes me nervous. |
Instead, when I am intrigued by something, I bury myself in readings about it — usually books but also speeches, manifestoes, Supreme Court opinions, special counsel reports or whatever else — and if I'm lucky, I come up for air with something worth holding to the light. This is the approach I developed as a book critic for The Washington Post, and it's stuck. It is how I think, and it's how I write. |
For months now, I've been taken with the use of the term "the big lie" in American politics and news media, with its historical baggage, its sense of finality (always the big lie, as if none bigger could be uttered) and its staying power. What, aside from its brazen dishonesty and ambition, I've wondered, makes the lie about the 2020 election so strong — so big? |
So I read several works of journalism and history and political memoir that explore different aspects of the big lie, particularly its origins and its influence over the Republican Party. It soon became clear that the big lie is inseparable from the big joke — the enduring idea that lies are common currency in Washington and that, because everyone "gets the joke," telling those lies is free of consequences. |
"Without the big joke, the big lie would not merit its adjective," I wrote in my first Times column. "Its challenge to democracy would be ephemeral, not existential." |
Let me know what you think — and also what you think I should read next. |
| READ CARLOS'S COLUMN HERE | | |
Forward this newsletter to friends to share ideas and perspectives that will help inform their lives. They can sign up here. Do you have feedback? Email us at opiniontoday@nytimes.com. |
Contact us If you have questions about your Times account, delivery problems or other issues, visit our Help Page or contact The Times. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment