Did you ever see the movie, A Few Good Men? Sure you did, that’s the one with Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson.
https://filmschoolrejects.com/a-few-good-men-final-battle/
Do you remember the famous court room scene in which Tom Cruise, in the role of the defense attorney for two marines accused of murder, confronts their base commander, Colonel Nathan Jessup, played by Jack Nicholson?
Cruise demands that Jessup answer his question about whether or not he ordered the code red that resulted in private Santiago’s death. He pushes Jessup to answer by demanding, “I want the truth!” You can’t handle the truth!” Jessup yells back.
The movie’s irony, of course, is that it was Jessup who couldn’t handle the truth. He could not face the fact that he was the one in command who gave the code red order to the two marines on trial that ultimately led to Santiago’s death. The truth is that he was the one who was ultimately guilty of murder.
Just can’t handle the truth. Just like the Republicans - just like the whole damn Republican party. They can’t handle the truth - won’t handle truth. And the list of things that have a truth that the Reactionary Republicans can not intellectually or psychologically handle is pretty long: climate change, inequality of wealth, white privilege, secure elections without voter fraud, the need to raise taxes on super wealthy people, etc. So much truth, so much denial.
The inability to deal with reality, the actual truth of things, leads Reactionary Republicans to take mental refuge in all sorts of bizarre and stupid things: QANON conspiracies, denial of mass shootings (like Sandy Hook), Pizzagate, massive fraud done by Welfare Queens on food stamps, the inevitability of the Chinese taking over the Panama Canal because Jimmy Carter returned it to Panama, the need to always cut taxes, the coronavirus was not real but even if it was it wasn’t any worse than the flu and you could cure it with hydroxychloroquine.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/marjorie-taylor-greene-holocaust-masks-arizona-rally-republicans-outrage-b1852939.html
The fact that she has been stripped of her official duties, and therefore has little opportunity to help her constituents, does not seem to bother her. Just like Donald Trump (who has been stripped of his duties) she fills her time with new and more bizarre conspiracy theories, racists rants and trash talking of Democrats.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is one person. But what of the entire Republican party? Yep, the whole, just like one of its parts, can not handle the truth about current political life (or many other things).
Here are just two major examples of their inability to handle the truth and some insights into why.
-They can’t handle the truth that they actually lost the 2020 presidential election.
This is probably the best example of the Reactionary Republicans finding the truth of something to be too painful to handle: Joe Biden won the presidential election, and Donald Trump lost.
Trump himself has constantly maintained that he did not lose the election, and that Biden’s win was the result of massive voter fraud. Other Reactionary Republican leaders, as well as the ordinary man on the street, echo the same lie: Trump won, Biden lost, and there is lots of proof that Trump should be president.
To any other group of voters, it would be obvious that there was no massive voter fraud and that Biden won fair and square. But the Republican party just can’t accept that reality. They keep denying the truth because they just can’t or won’t handle the trauma of the loss.
Painful as it was, could you imagine Hillary Clinton denying her election loss and blaming it on massive voter fraud? Could you imagine Democratic politicians concocting idiotic conspiracy theories about Republicans hiding ballots, falsifying signatures and tampering with drop boxes to give Trump an unexpected win? Would you ever expect Democratic leaders or their lawyers to keep on making stupid court challenges even as they kept losing them?
No. The Democrats live in the real world where truth must be acknowledged. That’s how they could recalibrate, elect the right people, and then go on to take the house, the senate and the presidency from the Republicans.
The inability of the Republicans to face the truth about the 2020 election is not because there is a lack of evidence to believe it. In fact, there is so much evidence it proves that Biden not only won the election but he did so very convincingly.
You can refer back to my April 18th blog entry to review all of the things that prove Biden’s win is beyond question. Here’s a quick recap:
-The official (officially, official) results showed that Biden won 306 to Trump’s 232 electoral votes. And his margin of victory in the popular vote was more than 7 million. Yeah, he stomped on them!
-Republican Secretaries of State in crucial battle ground states like Arizona and Georgia (supposedly “safe” Republican states) checked and rechecked the vote totals and certified them as wins for Biden (and against strong political pressure by the Republican governors and state legislatures). Stomped them again.
-The Republicans went to court 60 times, in different states and with a variety of attacks and allegations concerning voter fraud swaying the election. And they lost every time - even when they were arguing in front of a judge appointed by Trump. 0 and 60! Stomp, stomp and stomp!
-The Supreme Court had the option to hear a challenge to the election and turned it down cold. Double gut stomp!
-Bill Barr, Trump’s own Attorney General (and general legal lap dog), specifically stated that there was not evidence sufficient to overturn the election. Double face stomp!
And still, and still they can’t face reality. Even now a company with the ridiculous name of Cyber Ninja, a Florida firm without any experience in auditing election results, is vainly trying to find any evidence of error or wrongdoing in the Arizona election. Don’t anybody be holding their breath!
Donald Trump had the complete power of the presidency at his disposal (along with continual transmissions through Twitter), constant, fawning hero worship from Fox (Fake and Phony) News, and rabid supporters. In 2016 he pulled off an unbelievable upset to win (by narrow margins in a few battle ground states) a “huge” electoral victory. So why wouldn’t he win again in 2020?
For all the advantages that Trump had as sitting president, for all the huge rallies and fawning adoration, for all the voter suppression that was tried and carried out in various battle ground states, Trump still lost. And that is the truth!
-They can’t handle the truth of the January 6th insurrection.
https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/news/news/shameful-moment-history-sisters-react-insurrection-us-capitol
We all saw, in real time, what happened at the Capitol Building on January 6th of this year. We all saw the video images of the mobs pushing past the temporary barricades, forcing the police back into the Capitol Building, the hordes of people smashing windows and running through the halls of congress. We all heard the audio tape of the rioters yelling and screaming. We all heard them yelling that they were going to hang Mike Pence.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/10/hang-mike-pence-twitter-stops-phrase-trending-capitol-breach
Initially, everyone seemed to have the same horrified reaction and draw the same conclusion: it was not a demonstration, or a protest, it was not even a riot. It was an act of insurrection. It was done specifically to stop the congress from officially certifying Joe Biden as president. This was clearly an act of treason!
Certainly some of the major Republican figures understood what had happened.
Immediately after the insurrection there was a call to hold Donald Trump responsible for his role in fomenting and encouraging the mob. Several prominent Republicans criticized Trump for his words and actions that day and some, shockingly, even voted to impeach him for a second time.
Not anymore. As time has passed so has the courage of all the Reactionary Republicans. Only a few now voice any criticism of Trump for January 6th actions. Instead, there is a massive truth denying effort by almost everyone from Mitch McConnell all the way down to the guy selling the MAGA hats out of the back of his car.
The efforts of Republicans to deny the truth that the event at the Capitol Building was an insurrection, carried out by traitors, for an unlawful purpose, and that it was aided and abetted by Trump, is astonishingly stupid and obvious. For example, Andrew Clyde, a Republican congressman from Georgia, claimed that the insurrectionists were actually just ordinary people having a normal tourist visit of the Capitol Building. But that same congressman was actually photographed inside the House Gallery helping others to barricade the door against a mob of “tourists.” And he looked pretty serious while doing it!
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheSWPrincess/status/1394278429768536066
Other Republican officials were just as determined in their efforts to ignore the truth of the insurrection.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/7/22218601/matt-gaetz-antifa-capitol-hill-riot-xrvision-facial-recognition-washington-times-story-false
Matt Gaetz, congressman from Florida, baselessly, and stupidly, claimed that the nearly all white mob of people wearing MAGA caps, carrying Trump flags and yelling "Make America great!” and storming the building were actually Antifa agitators impersonating Trump’s supporters. Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up - unless you’re a Reactionary Republican desperately trying to ignore an obvious truth.
https://mobile.twitter.com/TheSWPrincess/status/1394278429768536066
The denial of the truth about the insurrection reached all the way up to Trump himself. Trump not only claimed that he had done nothing wrong in connection to the events of the day, but he went so far as to claim that his actions were, “totally appropriate.” Totally appropriate? That’s completely Nathan Jessup in its unwillingness to handle the truth
With a handful of votes from a few brave Republicans with a sense of reality, Trump was impeached for a second time. Of course, he got off in the senate. Mitch McConnell, who condemned Trump nonetheless led the other cowardly Republicans in letting him go.
More time has passed, and the Republican effort to deny the truth of what the Trump insurrectionist mob tried to do in Washington grows harder and more strident.
Democrats in the house have proposed an independent commission, made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, to investigate the January 6 events. This group, like the 9-11 commission, would have power to subpoena witnesses and would provide an official record of the event on January 6th.
This idea had the backing of many members of congress and enjoyed strong support among the general public, with about 2/3 of Americans saying they thought an independent commission was needed. And making the investigation like the 9-11 commission made it particularly popular.
Regardless of the popularity and the obvious need for an investigation, the Republicans killed it. There will be no independent, bi-partisan inquiry into anything connected to the January 6th insurrection because Mitch McConnell and the majority of Republicans will not allow it.
Why? Because, like Col. Jessup, they can’t handle the truth. The truth that is plain and obvious to the entire world, except to Reactionary Republicans.
Along with the larger truth of their treasonous actions, there are a number of similar, very bitter, truths that Trump and the Reactionary Republicans just can’t handle:
-They lost the election because they ran a bad campaign.
Trump spent too much time holding rallies to massage his ego and prop up his pathetic self esteem instead of actually campaigning and building up his election infrastructure.
-People find Trump repulsive and generally don’t like him very much.
No other president has been so disliked by the American public. But Trump, like his supporters, lives in a self perpetuating bubble world surrounded by adoring MAGA addicts. Is the truth that a man with lousy approval ratings would lose an election? To Reactionary Trump supporter it is.
-Trump and his supporters tried to take the presidency by force.
Just look at the audio and video evidence. There were huge mobs of people smashing windows, breaking doors, roaming the halls of congress yelling for Nancy Pelosi, trying to force their way into the house gallery, shouting that they wanted to hang Mike Pence. There was a well constructed gallows with a ready-to-use noose that suddenly appeared outside the Capitol Building (prepositioned for immediate use?). And all of this was done just before congress met to certify Joe Biden as President of the United States, the very last step before Biden took office.
-The Republicans desperately want to “move on” from the insurrection because they don’t want to face what they have done.
After initially supporting the idea of a bi-partisan independent investigation into the January 6th insurrection, Mitch McConnell, in the Senate, and Kevin McCarthy both back-tracked and voted against the idea.
When they couldn’t justify the refusal on the basis of political partisanship, because the Democrats really did arrange it to be fair and bi-partisan, the Republicans had to scramble for another excuse, no matter how lame. Instead, they complained that it would be a waste of time, that the Republicans wanted to move on, and, McConnell said, “anything that gets us to rehashing 2020 elections, is, I think, a day lost.”
Even as I write this the Ninja Cyber clowns in Arizona are still vainly trying to find anything that even hints at voter fraud (they haven’t, at all) while they stumble around checking things and possibly losing ballots. And the Reactionary Republicans are trying very hard to duplicate the same amateur hour idiocy in other states. Oh Lord, how many more days will be wasted by the hypocrisy, lies and unwillingness to face truth by the Republicans?
Republicans are unfit to lead this country because individually and together they are the Nathan Jessups of American politics. They just can’t handle the truth.
Progressives not only live in the real world but can handle the truth. And that’s the real truth.
Vote for progressives, support the Democratic party, vote in every election. Donate to the Democratic party and your individual progressive politician.