Brunswick Beacon, 12.21.23
In Lewis Carroll's “Through the Looking Glass,” the young White Queen claims to be 101-years-old. Alice scoffs: “One CAN'T believe impossible things.” The Queen tells her to practice: “I've believed six impossible things before breakfast.”
Donald Trump needs you to practice. He wields a "firehose of falsehoods" to maliciously disguise his decline, keep you from distinguishing truth from lies and condition you to accept Big Lie #2 when he loses again next year.
Trump claims Biden is “cognitively impaired” and could lead us into “World War II.” That’s impossible because WWII is 78 years old, as Trump will be on election day. The fact that WWII already happened is known by anyone not “cognitively impaired.”
Trump claims Hungary borders Russia. That’s impossible because Ukraine separates them, as anyone following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Europe’s biggest war since WWII) would know unless they were “cognitively impaired.”
Trump calls Obamacare a disaster and promises to end it while boasting, “I saved Obamacare!” That's impossible because John McCain saved Obamacare with his dramatic thumbs-down vote. Trump called McCain’s vote “disgraceful,” which he’d remember unless cognitively impaired.
Trump confuses Obama for Biden so often he uses Pee Wee Herman’s moronic “I meant to do that” dodge, claiming he “sarcastically” substitutes "Obama” for “Biden!”
Trump denies being “cognitively impaired” and brags that he “aced” two dementia tests. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn’t buy it: “This is a different Donald Trump than 2015 and 2016, just a different guy.” DeSantis’ campaign says Trump’s declining mental sharpness is why “his handlers won’t let him debate.”
In Trump’s recent Town Hall with Tucker Carlson, CNN, The Washington Post, and other fact checkers verified that Trump gave 24 false or misleading claims within the same five-minute timeframe. That averages one mistruth every 12.5 seconds. Is that cognitive decline or just pathological lying?
In "Looking Glass,” Humpty Dumpty tells Alice, "When I use a word, it means what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.” Will voters buy Trump’s Humpty Dumpty routine? Or, like Alice, will they refuse to believe the impossible things Trump says?
Linda McConnell Baker
Leland
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