“The war is over now” Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in testimony at a recent Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. From a spokeswoman from the Department of Homeland Security, in a May 25 statement, “these sanctuary politicians should be thanking ICE law enforcement for removing murderers, rapist, pedophiles and drug traffickers from their communities”. And Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly said that HIV does not cause AIDS.
It could be argued that these examples — along with similar statements and explanations from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel are simply sharing a particular perspective. And some media outlets sell them, and many people buy them. A growing number of us don’t. Why? Because they are lies. Damnable lies. Add to this the unrelenting cascade of 34,573 lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations that Donald Trump has issued over the past ten years (as inventoried by the Washington Post), and we are becoming a culture whose currency of proclamation is nigh unto worthless.
This unrepentant lying accomplishes two insidious things. First, it serves to seal up the silo of those who take refuge in the lies — by building up a fortress against what is identified as the disreputable, if not evil, forces of “the left”. The voices from the Trump Administration self-righteously take aim — which is often lethal – at truth, at the “other”, at whatever and whoever stands in their way. It is a constant stoking of anger, fear and resentment.
And in some ways it is working. Because the second perverse result of the Trump Administration is that the combination of lies, and the cruelty and injustice which often accompany them, renders so many of us feeling helpless and hopeless. There are moments when I am literally brought to tears at the degradation and perversion of truth — at the expense of so many innocent people.
The nihilism that Trump promotes is an infectious disease. We can easily catch this destructive virus and become bedridden with hopelessness. Which is exactly Trump’s intuitive intent. If we fall ill with a psychic or spiritual paralysis the Trump jingoistic juggernaut continues to roll on.
We can’t let that happen. We need to inoculate ourselves against the lies and nihilism. And there are at least three ways that are emerging that we need to support and pay close attention to. The first is — expose the lies. There are journalists who are unearthing facts and information that the current administration desperately wants to keep hidden. And there are a growing number of courageous whistleblowers who are risking their careers, reputations, and often their safety as they tell stories of what is happening behind closed doors. It is making a difference. Thank God for all of them.
The second is to resist engaging in “the Othering” game. For one thing, Donald Trump is better at it than almost everyone elseat this game. He holds more cruelty cards than most of us can imagine, and he has played them with perverse success for decades. For another thing, when we engage in the tit for tat, your move/my move cycle, we become even more susceptible to the nihilism virus. At best, we find ourselves in a stalemate. At worst, we risk becoming the very agents of hate, fear and vengeance that we are fighting against.
The third is to build trust. This is perhaps the hardest because trust is in such short supply these days. But trust is what is needed. Not a fanciful, Pollyanna type of trust, nor the proclaiming of“God will provide”, which as a person of faith I can find myself sometimes giving prayerful voice to. I do believe that God is mysteriously engaged in the challenge of the day, but turning it all over to God is a kind of abdication. We need to engage as well. There are some upcoming opportunities: Interfaith America is promoting “America’s Potluck” on July 5th, hoping to generate thousands of potlucks or barbecues across the country for people to celebrate the Declaration of Independence and share their perspectives on the American Dream. https://www.interfaithamerica.org/events/americas-potluck/. “A Vigil for America” is being planned for the Sundays before the November midterm elections, when faith-based bridge building groups will host zoom events to support our Constitutional commitment to free and fair elections. Building trust and solidifying relationships —and daring to establish new ones — particularly with those who may look at the world in a different way, can go a long way to bring about healing. Yes, there are people who are so dug into their perspectives and positions that it is nearly impossible to build trust. But most of us are trying to sort through this debilitating misery of the echoing lies; and developing relationships of trust and care can be a building brick of a bulwark that can help upend the nihilistic movement and replace it with the breath of hope and promise.
