“Simple Facts,” and Other Political Lies

Steve Benen, Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past

Donald Trump notoriously occupies a parallel world, where he twice won the popular vote, engineered a thriving economy, and wasn’t helped into office by Russia. That’s fine, by itself; many people suffer from what netizens call “Main Character Syndrome.” Trump, however, has a unique capability to draw others into his fantasies. Political writer Steve Benen offers to analyze how exactly this happens. Yet somehow, the analysis never quite arrives.

Specialists within a field will sometimes promise to explain something fundamental to their discipline, but ultimately just describe it. I encountered this phenomenon in the writings of sociologist Duncan J. Watts, though it predates him. Watts writes that art historians, purposing to explain why Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is the best artwork ever, will then describe its traits. The Mona Lisa is best, Watts claims, because it resembles the Mona Lisa.

That, I believe, happens with this book. Benen breaks the Republican machine’s structure of lies into seven broad categories, including election denialism, the unfinished Wall, his merely okay economy that couldn’t withstand COVID-19, and the January 6^th insurrection. Benen lists the lies extensively, though largely in ways that assume you remember what really happened. And, unfortunately, that’s about all he does, reprinting a 200-page laundry list.

First, notwithstanding the title, Benen reveals a problem less with the Republican Party than with the Trump political apparatus. Benen cites several Republicans who directly criticize Trump’s specious narrative, including Dan Coates and John Bolton, both former Trump insiders. But Coates and Bolton aren’t running for reelection. Sitting Republicans must share Trump’s parallel universe because, if they don’t, they know they’ll get turfed out in the primaries.

Then, having listed the former administration’s fantasies, which he debunks with rudimentary Google searches and appeals to our own memories, Benen… stops. Having identified a pattern of obfuscation, Benen believes he’s completed his responsibilities. But his intended audience, which shares his overall dim opinion of the Trump years, will likely respond: “No shit.” Because, as Benen writes, we remember what really happened. We watched it happen on live TV.

Don’t mistake Benen’s motives, or mine. Political operatives spin events to suit a partisan narrative, and wise voters anticipate it. Skillful politicians in make defeat look temporary, embarrassment seem minor, and the other side’s foibles appear as moral catastrophes. Benen acknowledges this early, and clarifies that he means something altogether different. Trump’s organization repeatedly insists our eyes lie, and reality is Trump’s narrative, not the evidence of our senses.

Steve Benen

Trump and his political hangers-on began spinning false narratives with such alacrity, it boggled the imagination. From Day One, he dispatched Sean Spicer to propagate false reports of massive Inauguration Day crowds, despite the paltry attendance displayed on global TV the day before. Trump’s machine began spinning false yarns about the Lafayette Park clearance on June 1^st, 2020, or the January 6^th insurrection, literally within hours.

More interesting, Trump’s lies aren’t even internally consistent. Anybody who fibbed to their parents about grades or curfews knows that sticking to the fabricated narrative is key. But, as Benen’s accounting shows, Trump’s falsehoods shift with political winds and Trump’s personal mood. Partisan accounts of, say, the Russian election interference case, change repeatedly. The only constant is that any account that Trump dislikes, is dismissed.

Benen’s audience probably shares my curiosity. We remember what happened because, as Benen writes, we watched it happen live. I care more about two follow-up questions: how can Trump and his supporters be so brazen in their untruths? And why do rank-and-file Republicans believe this baloney-sauce when they, like everyone else, saw what really happened? What political or sociological mechanism lets Trump spin obvious fantasies, while others eat it up?

Those answers aren’t forthcoming. Benen’s mostly left-leaning audience knows already that Trump can lie flagrantly, about events we all saw happen, and face few electoral consequences. We also know that nobody apparently shares Trump’s mojo. We all watched Ron DeSantis and Kari Lake using Trump’s playbook, and we watched them descend into national laughingstocks. Trump, alone, has this ability to invent another reality, and sell it to a loyal base.

Again, no kidding. These facts (ironically enough, under the circumstances) aren’t in dispute. But without further understanding, we’ll find ourselves trapped inside the event horizon of Trump’s black hole, debunking similar falsehoods forever. Benen admits, in his epilogue, that he lacks any solution. But he also lacks any deeper analysis, any willingness to read between the lines. He tells us what we already know—and what Trump already denies.