Republicans are trying to rewrite the history of
the Capitol attack. Don’t let them
Andrew
Gawthorpe
By blocking a congressional investigation into what
happened, the Republican party has proven itself beyond shame or dignity
‘Ridiculous claims that the election was stolen or
that the coronavirus was a minor event are intended to recast the story of America’s
recent history in a way which legitimizes the Republican party’s ceaseless war
against expertise, fact-based media, and political opposition.’
Fri 28 May
2021 22.31 BST
Do you
remember how, just a few short months ago, supporters of Donald Trump staged a
violent insurrection? How they stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn
the results of last November’s presidential election, looting and vandalizing
the seat of American democracy? The fact that they carried firearms, explosives
and handcuffs, some wanting to kill Vice-President Mike Pence, and others to
run the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, over with a car? And how the whole thing
was incited by the former president, Donald Trump, who told the mob beforehand
to “fight like hell”?
If you are
willing to admit that you remember these things, you’re in a smaller minority
than you might think. In recent months, Republicans haven’t been content to
just block the creation of a congressional committee to uncover new facts about
the insurrection. They’ve also moved to rewrite the history of the facts we
already know. Republican legislators and rightwing media have suggested either
that nothing of particular note happened that day, or that if it did, it was
the fault of leftwing agitators like “antifa” and Black Lives Matter.
Completely unmoored from reality as they may be, Republican voters seem about
split between the two explanations, with 48% saying that the people at the
Capitol were “mostly peaceful, law-abiding Americans” and 54% saying they were
a leftwing mob.
Often lies
like this are designed to obscure what the party itself does. As Republicans
have moved more and more overtly towards rejecting the democratic process, they
have to try all the more furiously to cover up their tracks. If the party were
forced to admit that the man who they twice put forward to be president – and
may yet put forward again – had instigated a violent insurrection, it would be
hard for them to continue to function as a democratic political party. Rather
than admit what they really are, they prefer to deny what they did.
But the
attempt by Republicans to rewrite history extends beyond lying about their own
behavior. Like pathological liars everywhere, Republicans spin vast,
conspiratorial stories in which they always emerge as either the hero or the
victim. Ridiculous claims that the election was stolen or that coronavirus was
a minor event which the media overhyped to harm Trump are intended to recast
the story of America’s recent history in a way which legitimizes the party’s
ceaseless war against expertise, fact-based media and political opposition.
The inability to reach a shared understanding of
recent history poses a grave danger
What makes
Republican lies so insidious is that they have many purposes beyond being
literally believed. As Russel Muirhead and Nancy L Rosenblum have argued, they
are often “conspiracy without the theory”. No evidence or explanation in
support of them is offered because factual belief is not the point. Instead,
they serve to have believers demonstrate their loyalty. To repeat something
clearly untrue is a sign of debasement but also dedication, one that reaffirms
one’s identity as a loyal member of the movement. The lies also draw a clear
line between believers on the inside and those on the outside who react
furiously to the blatant falsehoods. This only intensifies the perception among
Republicans that they are under relentless siege from hostile forces, making
the lies even easier to repeat.
The
inability to reach a shared understanding of recent history poses a grave
danger. While political parties and factions will always disagree over how to
interpret the world and its history, the give-and-take and trust which are
vital to the functioning of democratic politics depend on a common baseline
understanding of reality. Decades ago, the political theorist Hannah Arendt
wrote that factual truth is “the ground on which we stand and the sky that
stretches above us”, by which she meant that it sets the parameters and limits
of political struggle. If one side refuses to accept those limits, it is
signaling that it is capable of doing almost anything to gain the power
necessary remake the world in the shadow of their lies.
Another of
Arendt’s observations was that once a common understanding of the world has
been lost, it is incredibly difficult to reconstruct. The sheer scale of the
apparatus which works to rewrite history – from TV and radio to social media
posts to online propaganda outlets – creates a snug cocoon of validation which
is hard to penetrate, especially when it is shared with others. Psychologists have
demonstrated that human beings are hard-wired to dismiss information that
contradicts their worldview and threatens their social relationships. If
everyone else in your circle – at home, at the bar, on social media – is
accepting the historical rewrite, the easiest thing to do is go along with it.
Failing to do so could mean losing friends, falling out with family and
questioning the fundamentals of your own identity.
All of
these forces create powerful incentives which will remain in place for as long as
the party remains committed to its assault on American democracy. It has been
said that truth is the first casualty of war, but it is also the first victim
of would-be autocrats and revolutionaries. Today’s Republican party has plenty
of both. For as long as it and its supporters continue to travel down their
current path, they will remain dependent on the constant rewriting of history.
There’s no other way for them to keep going. As for where exactly they’re going
– that’s a question which ought to worry us all.
Andrew
Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University, and host of
the podcast America Explained
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