A cacophony of fear and lies

As we ramp up to the mid-term elections, MAGA candidates are pulling out all the stops. A church organist, who wants to envelope the space with overpowering sound, pulls selected knobs all the way out. But with MAGA, it’s not music, it’s all the knobs everywhere, all at once, in order to create cacophony.

They want to blast undecided voters with so much fear that they will become deaf to sound reasoning. MAGA uses another metaphor — flooding the zone — but it comes to the same end.

And it is a flood. Writer Jay Kuo noted that Bruce Blakeman, running for New York governor, is equating the riots in Paris with living under current Governor Kathy Hochul and Zohran Mamdani. Really?

Hochul and Mamdani are governing right now, and a lot of New Yorkers seem pretty happy. Is New York on fire? No? Then let’s hope there are enough Republicans with critical thinking skills to see this message for what it is.

Blakeman took his cue from the president who is also conflating our elections with the riots in France. He’s fond of using the threat: “You’re not going to have a country anymore if. . .” I’d like to point out that the president has been in charge for just shy of two years, and is the country better off now? Are you?

Elon Musk is dumping millions into scaring MAGA voters to the polls by spreading transphobia thick and fast. His America PAC created all kinds of ads to ignite fear about sending Tim to school and having her come home as Tina.

This is also one of the president’s favorite tropes. Why isn’t he calling out the police or the National Guard to put a stop to this? Why aren’t the president’s lawyers litigating against this illegality?

Why aren’t parents burning down the schools in protest of child mutilation? Why is no one in the MAGA camp asking how cash-strapped public schools have fully-equipped operating rooms and doctors on staff to perform these “operations”?

Even MAGA knows this is BS. “He’s just being himself,” they say. Yes, that’s the problem. He’s skilled at spreading fear and stoking hatred.

And he lies. He lies. He lies.

One of the podcasts I listen to reminded me that Special Prosecutor Jack Smith told the American public a hard truth: Lying is protected under the First Amendment unless it causes specific, legally recognized harm.

Proving actual malice in defaming a candidate is difficult, and our president, buffoon that he is, knows just what to say so that he can claim he was only exaggerating.

So, the lying will continue unabated, but our democracy dies a little more each day.

This is how contorted our situation has become. MAGA wants to take over America and turn it into a Christo-fascist state. They want a certain flavor of religiosity to rule every aspect of our life. (I will not say “Christian” because what they propose has nothing to do with Christ.)

But any semblance of a religious life is supposed to be guided by high ethical standards. God’s laws are supposed to be higher than man’s, or so I learned. Within those standards, lying is prohibited. The Ten Commandments, which MAGA is so hot to post in classrooms, is clear about lying.

Yet our president glories in being the “lyin’ king.” And all manner of pew-sitters turn a blind eye to the false witness he bears day after day.

The First Amendment protects him, and he laughs in the face of God’s law as he lies.

So, what will it be, Mr. President? The law of the land — the Constitution — that you want to abolish, yet hide behind, or the law of God, of which you know nothing, yet pay mealy-mouthed lip service to?

You cannot serve both, and in fact, you are serving neither. You are only serving yourself. And I wish to God your followers would wake up and realize that.

You are right about one thing, though: You keep up this destruction, and we won’t have a country anymore.

Joan Zwagerman writes from Storm Lake.