Trump perpetuates lies about the 2020
election because history shows lies work
It is infuriating and frightening how Trump’s lies about the 2020 election form the very basis of his campaign. But not surprising. Lies work.
Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister for the Third Reich, one of the world’s master liars and propagandists, was surely the first in the modern age to make a systematic study of how to effectively lie and spread propaganda. Some of his insights: repeat a lie often enough and people will believe it, including yourself; the more outlandish the lie, the harder it is to disbelieve; truth is the mortal enemy of the lie; messaging needs to be crude, appealing to emotions and instincts rather than the intellect.
Since Trump does not read, it’s certain he never read these insights from Goebbels. But he doesn’t have to read them; he understands the principles intuitively from somewhere deep in his soul.
Mark Warren, Austin
Do Republicans really believe election was
stolen, or do they fear Trump’s wrath?
Re: Jan. 2 commentary, ‘Trump paid me to find voter fraud, and lies about what I found’
The commentary by guest columnist Ken Block should be required reading by anyone falsely claiming that the 2020 election was ‘stolen’.
Employed by the Trump campaign to prove allegations of voter fraud, Block summarized his findings quite clearly by saying that he “…found no evidence of voter fraud sufficient to change the outcome of any election…and, more important, claims of voter fraud made by others were verified as false, including proof of why those claims were disproven.”
After numerous investigations, court challenges and ballot counts (and recounts) I find it incomprehensible that a majority of Republicans continue to insist the election was ‘rigged.’ Governor Abbott and Dan Patrick among others are intelligent individuals. If they truly believe that Trump won, is it asking too much of them to present verifiable evidence supporting this accusation? Or are they so fearful of admitting that Trump lost they will subjugate their moral principles and continue to spout “a steady diet of lies and innuendo” to avoid his wrath?
The answer is sadly obvious.
Joe Pastusek, Pflugerville
Trump encouraged the Jan. 6 mob
to do his will and said he loved them
In 2020, Trump fomented a rebellion in an attempt to hold on to power. He tried to use his followers to terrorize Congress into doing his will instead of doing the law. He encouraged a mob that threatened to lynch his own vice president. When he later addressed the people who wanted to carry out that crime, he said he loved them. Since then, he has promised to make a second term one of revenge against those who opposed him.
What can anyone in government expect, what can anyone who actually exercises the rights enumerated in the 1st Amendment expect, from a president who has proven he loves and encourages violent thugs who are willing to murder a high government official for the “crime” of not giving Trump what he wants?
Keith Hood, Austin
Trump’s ‘loser’ insults about American
service members can’t be forgotten
Re Jan. 2 commentary: ‘After 50 years, a Marine comes home. No, Donald Trump, Captain Ron Forrester is not a loser.‘
God bless former state Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. I thought I was the only person in the universe to remember – or even notice – Donald Trump’s insults to American soldiers in the 2016 presidential debates and again in the 2018 European 100-year commemoration ceremonies of the end of World War I.
This is personal for me, too. My brother served a tour in the Marines in the Pacific during the ’60s. Semper fi.
Jeanne Shaub, Austin
LaPierre didn’t seem to grasp why parents
were upset. He’ll leave a bloody legacy.
Re: Jan. 5 article: ‘NRA Executive Wayne LaPierre survived years of criticism. Now he’s stepping down‘
Wayne LaPierre, the head of the NRA, has resigned after being accused of violating nonprofit laws and using millions of dollars to pay for an extravagant lifestyle.
LaPierre (testified in a deposition in his graft trial) that he was forced to accept a cruise from a donor after receiving death threats after the Parkland and the Sandy Hook school shootings.
Apparently LaPierre doesn’t understand why parents would be upset that their children were killed by an assault rifle designed by the military to kill as many of the enemy as quickly as possible and that can massacre a classroom of children in less than a minute, while leaving their bodies unrecognizable to their own families.
LaPierre won’t be remembered for making record gun profits over his 30-year career but instead for making guns the number one cause of death in children. Talk about leaving a bloody legacy.
Sharon A. Austry, Fort Worth
Time to get rid of the old and tired
ways of getting feedback from voters
Local and state governments can do better with a simple solution: improve how its residents and citizens provide feedback. Too often only a mere fraction of voices are heard: Those who attend some meeting in the middle of the day. That’s not practical for the majority of residents. We work. We have kids. We are busy.
What’s practical is using technology (e.g., surveys, direct emails, online polls) for getting feedback to community issues and concerns. Why are we still asking people to show up physically to some random in-person meeting? This isn’t the Middle Ages. Seek feedback like the Middle Ages and you’ll get poor response rates, inaccurate responses, and people who have nothing better to do and who do not represent majority of residents. Local and state governments, get interactive, get modern, and democracy will see a revival.
John Brunner, Kyle
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