A plea for politics after Graham Platner debacle: Stop the gaslighting | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Democrats defended Graham Platner until a credible rape accusation emerged.
- We need an Anti-Gaslighting Party to oppose political manipulators.
- Both parties deny obvious facts and try to persuade you to ignore your own eyes.
Expectations for politics have gotten about as low as they can. But let’s draw a line here: No more partisan hacks telling us things that we can see with our own eyes in real time are not true.
A while back, Merriam-Webster declared “gaslighting” the word of the year because of the prevalence of deepfakes and misinformation. It goes beyond lying to suggest manipulation designed to make you question your own observations and beliefs. In Texas, we’ve long had a more colorful version of this: Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
Recent days have exploded one of the great political gaslighting efforts of our time. Democrats spent weeks trying to convince voters that a candidate with a Nazi symbol tattooed on his body and with a history of disgusting online comments and mistreatment of women was really a good dude — so good, in fact, that only he could represent Maine in the U.S. Senate. Then came a credible rape accusation and — poof! — the gaslights blew out all at once for Graham Platner, who can go back to living off his parents’ wealth … er, sorry, oyster farming.
This one is egregious, but political gaslighting is a bipartisan endeavor. Sane people outside the extreme 20% that dominates each party can see nuttery right in front of their faces, but leaders, media spinners and hacks try to convince us that it’s all shadows. Wrong is right, up is down, and you definitely didn’t see the elite ruling class trip on its own feet over and over and over again.
Third parties don’t win many elections in American politics. But they can elevate issues and steer (perhaps even shame) the Republican and Democratic establishments to be more responsive. We’re not going to get the huge swath in the middle of American life to agree on much policywise, but who’s up for an Anti-Gaslighting Party?
The platform is simple: Oppose manipulators who are trying to convince us that the things we witness for ourselves and the basic truths of human life are not to be trusted.
For example: A Nazi tattoo is a permanent disqualifier for holding public office. Forever. Whatever the circumstances were at the time. If your judgment is that bad, good for you if you clean it up. But go do something else with your life.
Donald Trump supporters live in a gaslit world
President Donald Trump and his sycophants deserve their own special category here. First, stop acting like he’s politically popular (he’s not) and pretending that the wishes of the MAGA base represent a broad swath of the American electorate (they don’t). Democrats tried this with Barack Obama, and that’s, in part, how they got Trump.
Don’t tell us that Trump cares so deeply for struggling American families. He surely does, at some level. But there is no concern he won’t immediately jettison in service to the cause most dear to his heart: Donald Trump. His narcissism, his need for revenge and his desire to deflect blame inform every decision.
How many times is the man going to step in front of a microphone and tell people that some relatively small-ball concern, like the misnamed SAVE America Act, is more important than Americans’ struggles to afford food and housing? How many fellow Republicans will he throw under the bus for insufficient loyalty, even if it threatens his party’s power?
Despite all this, leftists hold a gaslighting edge, simply because so much of what they believe is antithetical to human nature and experience — on economics, gender, language and so much more. But they really shine on politics.
The entire Democratic Party apparatus spent years trying to persuade people that the obvious stumbling and incoherence from President Joe Biden, growing worse each day on live TV, wasn’t real. Then, when it appeared in a live debate, elected Democrats, media remora and party poobahs acted as if they’d never said the man was vibrant, healthy, sharper than anyone else in the room.
Keep track of the people who do this sort of thing. And when they pop up again, never listen to a word they say.
Democrats, Republicans are gaslighting mirrors on issues
On many issues, there’s a Democrat-Republican mirror image problem. How about if presidents stop telling us how great the economy is all the time? It’s a tremendously complex subject, but for most people, what matters is wages and prices, not monthly job creation or the stock market. Stop telling people their grocery and energy bills aren’t what they see in plain numbers in front of them.
On immigration, don’t pretend that rapid, extensive changes in the population have no effect on our economy or culture. But don’t tell us, either, that a tiny group is within a hair of taking over and imposing its dark will on the rest of us.
In Texas, how about not telling us that Ken Paxton is a great conservative warrior when he abuses his office and uses government power to try to control the private sector? Maybe don’t try to convince us that James Talarico’s weird embrace of the far reaches of progressivism don’t matter to whether he should hold statewide office.
And for the sake of our children, stop telling us everything would be fine in Texas schools if we just spent more money and state leaders got out of the way? The U.S. has known it has an education crisis on its hands for 50 years; billions upon billions of dollars later, the kids still can’t read.
That’s just a fraction of the distorted discourse that is making governing nearly impossible. Anti-Gaslighters could find similar misrepresentations on taxes, election fraud/voter suppression, gender, Israel and so much more.
It’s enough to build an entire platform — not to win an election but maybe, just maybe, to start to stem the tide of obvious bovine excrement our leaders insult us with every day. Let’s not wait for another Graham Platner to force the issue.
