"But Whaddabout?"

 

                                       But Whaddabout?

"Whaddabout": An attempt to divert attention from reality by attempting to shift focus to another and usually hugely irrelevant subject. (Example: "the assault on the Capitol building was abhorrent and Trump encouraged it by his comments,"  Response: "But whaddabout that black guy in the crowd? It was all BLM's fault.")  

        I'm really sick and tired of the "Whaddabouts" circulating about the recent Capitol riot and the election leading up to it. The general theme seems to be that if anyone Black was visible in the crowd, then BLM had "infiltrated" the mob and bore responsibility for the whole thing. The fact that there even are actual Black Trump supporters is a mystery to me, but there are, but they are a micro minority, and primarily media whores, like Stacy Dash and a few others who have fashioned a career of being a rarity, like a virgin in a brothel. There are several categorical truths re: this mess.

        First, consider the comments that Congressman Jim Jordan (R, Ohio) made in the weeks before the riots which stoked the fire, He alleged that Trump won because, “He got more votes than in 2016”, while failing to mention that Biden also got even more than Mrs. Clinton did in the same election which Trump won in the Electoral College. He also specifically stated “I’ve never said that this election was stolen,” a claim easily disproved by an article that covered his appearance at the Pennsylvania “Stop the Steal” rally. “President Trump got 11 million more votes than he did in 2016, and House Republicans won 27 of 27 toss-up races,” said Jordan. “But somehow the guy who never left his house wins the election?  Eighty million Americans, 80 million of our fellow citizens, Republicans and Democrats, have doubts about this election; and 60 million people, 60 million Americans think it was stolen.”(This last is a run-on "whaddabout." What is missing is the fact that even if Trump did get 11 million more votes than 2016, Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more in that same 2016 race. Trump who, after criticizing the Electoral college all through the race, won only because of it.

        Fact:   In 2020, Joe Biden polled 15.2 million more than Clinton did in 2016 and, in the final analysis, 7 million more popular votes than Trump in 2020. By any metric, Biden won handily, and every single state and, even those with Republican supervisors of elections and secretaries of state, has validated the vote. Voter turnout percentage was the highest since 1900.    

        Fact: No state election official, Republican or Democrat actually questions the election results. This has been the most closely scrutinized election in our history and baseless Republican allegations stem from the fact that Trump supporters simply can’t face the fact that their icon lost. This disappointment has been systematically inflamed by Trump’s own inability to admit that he lost. Statements by Trump, Giuliani, and a cast of complicit sycophants, in and out of government, have led the Trump faithful, never really good at critical thinking anyway, to believe blatant lies. More than 50 Federal Judges, several of them Trump appointees, have unanimously rejected every single allegation of impropriety and several states even performed extra hand counts of ballots to certify the validity of their results. Yet, the Jordans, Cruzes and Giulianis, et al, continued stoking the fires as Trump, consummate liar that he is, did the same. We have seen the result. The majority of American voters rejected Donald Trump, and the ironic part is that Trump, himself a malignant narcissist, will never understand, or at least be able to acknowledge, that he is the problem.  

        Fact: The mob that met at the Capitol was/were not organized lucid individuals with focus or beliefs other than that Trump was, somehow, “their guy” and that they were, in some alternate reality, “On the side if the angels.”  In truth, Trump wouldn’t touch the majority of them or allow them on the premises of any of his properties. It is a possibility, although not one these folks will acknowledge, that if you have failed to avail yourself of opportunities provided during your formative years or if you are suffering from some sort of personality disorder which has resulted in your adulthood being less than you would like it to be, you may actually be responsible for your own circumstances. If you feel it a better option to blame persons of color, LGBT folks, immigrants, successful women or just political liberals in general, then we have identified the problem, and it isn’t in Washington DC.

        Add to this, political ignorance and borderline mental illness and you might, like the unfortunate Ashli Babbitt, find yourself as a former, often disciplined, mediocre ex-military member, failed and deep in debt small businessperson, desperately clinging to the false belief that your problems are someone else’s fault and that Donald Trump somehow will make your life better. As a result, half a continent away from home, you find yourself in a mob storming the US Capitol building which, tragically, you won’t leave alive. Truth told, you  were fatally scammed by an, also deep in debt, businessman whose history of bankruptcies, stiffing workers and small business like yours should have been a warning rather than a siren song.     

         A real and, I feel, under realized yet significant part of the Trump saga is that some of the major corporations in America who benefitted from Trump’s pandering to their ceaseless pleas for deregulation, made obvious by his systematic dismantling of Dodd-Frank and systematic cancelling of Obama executive orders related to environmental protection, have, by their acquiescence, encouraged his actions right up until it became expedient to sense the sea change in opinion caused by the Capitol assault.  Then, in a flurry of patriotic fervor, some of them have suddenly become righteously indignant and vocal about how much they loathed the actions of the man they had quietly enabled for four years by massive campaign contributions. I am sometimes reminded (and I’ll close with this) of a song in the rather mundane Broadway musical “L’il Abner.” The ditty was entitled, “What’s Good for General Bullmoose is Good for the USA.”  Its hard to shake the feeling that many US corporate heads whistle that while they work.