(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Lest We Forget: A Review of the Trump Big Lie Presidency with Photos, Videos, and Links [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-10-02 Several days ago The NY Times ran what they labeled an opinion piece — but it is more accurately described as a documentary . (Full access gift link.) It’s a collection of photos, videos, and links to articles organized in chronological fashion, of the four years of chaos that was inflicted on the country. It is too much to look at on a phone easily — if you can see it on a tablet or a computer, or stream it to a tv, all the better. Several days ago I wrote up an article by David Corn which explored the mechanisms by which people have erased the memory of those years. (I also linked to the Times retrospective — but this time I’m able to provide the full access link above.) Republicans have tried to rewrite the four years of Trump’s presidency as a time of unparalleled peace, prosperity and tranquility: “the strongest economy in history,” as Senator Katie Britt of Alabama put it during the Republican National Convention. The difference between Trump and Biden? “President Trump honored the Constitution,” said Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia offered Mr. Trump’s first term as an example of “common-sense conservative leadership.” The record of what Mr. Trump actually did in office bears little resemblance to that description. Under his leadership, the country lurched from one crisis to the next, from the migrant families separated at the border to the sudden spike in prices caused by his trade war with China to the reckless mismanagement of the Covid pandemic. And he showed, over and over, how little respect he has for the Constitution and those who take an oath to defend it. For Americans who may have forgotten that time, or pushed it from memory, we offer this timeline of his presidency. Mr. Trump’s first term was a warning about what he will do with the power of his office — unless American voters reject him. Minnesota Nice vs. The Big Lie If you watched the VP debate last night, it was a case of Minnesota Nice versus Smiling Fascism pushing a revisionist history Big Lie . The Trump-Vance campaign has a simple strategy: lie about Trump’s record and lie about the record of Biden and Harris. Repeat, repeat, repeat: everything was better under Trump and will be again; everything has been horrible under Biden and Harris and it will only get worse. As David Corn’s article points out, this repetition is one way traumatic memories get overwritten. It was remarkable how Biden completely disappeared from Vance’s account of the last four years. Apparently Harris has been running the country all that time. You could see Walz getting frustrated watching Vance repeat the same lies over and over. It was a Gish Gallop. Every time Vance would get a question first, he’d shovel out the lies faster than Walz could respond in the time allowed. That the moderators were not allowed to fact-check only made it worse. If that wasn’t bad enough, Vance came across as a seemingly reasonable person — he made Trumpism almost seem tolerable. No one who doesn’t know his record would be able to tell what a sham that was. To quote Shakespeare: “One may smile and smile and be a villain.” Frankly Walz undercut himself and Harris by spending too much time giving Vance credit he doesn’t deserve. If Vance had been born a century ago in Germany, there’s no question whose policies he’d support and what he’d be doing — he’s doing it today in this century. Everything you need to know about Vance came out at the end when he refused to admit Trump lost the election in 2020. Harris and Walz need to keep Trump and Vance from succeeding with their latest Big Lie. They need to remind everyone again and again that things have been better under Biden, and will continue to get better under Harris. They also need to expose the Big Lie for what it is. For anyone who doesn’t understand why “We’re not going back” — please share The NY Times documentary on just how terrible the four years under Trump were. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/2/2274234/-Lest-We-Forget-A-Review-of-the-Trump-Big-Lie-Presidency-with-Photos-Videos-and-Links?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/