Former Aberdeen mayor Levsen: Under the worship of Trump, Republicans are ignoring reality, law and science

Do you have to be (or pretend to be) unaware of the world around you in order to be a Republican elected official? Not meaning to be disrespectful — I’m genuinely curious how you regard yourselves.

As a GOP officeholder (local, state, national), you are part of the apparent near-unanimous support of Donald Trump. This makes you an enabler and partner for policies and ideas contrary to science, history, and common sense — all so you can stay in the choir singing its unequivocal support of the man behind the ideas. One would like to think you don’t actually believe these things.

Are you a believer or a pretender?

Vaccination science. Your top health-care official encourages parents to not get their kids inoculated and your president says he’ll cancel aid to schools that require Covid vaccinations. They “have doubts” it’s a good thing.

Climate change. Climate science tells us how carbon dioxide warms the earth. Republicans are not allowed to say that without pushback. Drill, baby, drill.

Science education. This is hard to believe 100 years after the Scopes trial: In most states, Republicans expressing agreement with Charles Darwin are in serious primary election danger. Biology and geology are not regular topics in GOP caucuses.

Tariffs. Magically, the costs somehow never get to the consumer in Trump economics. Apparently all the smart people in the White House are afraid to explain it to the president. Either that or he just can’t understand it. Anyway, you can’t publicly dispute it.

Jan 6 felons. Republicans are required to never speak of these criminals negatively.  They are patriots, hostages, tourists, and supporters participating in “a day of love.” And, they are not felons anymore.

Ukraine. Russia was attacked; Putin is easy to work with. We actually hear a few lonely Republican voices expressing some doubt about this, but not many and not very forcefully.

Immigrants. They are criminals, rapists, drug carriers, terrorists. As a Trump supporter, you must ignore the fact that native-born residents are per-capita more likely to offend in all those categories.

Tax policy. You are compelled to argue that lowering taxes for the wealthy actually increases revenues and cuts the deficit. Just ignore history and the massive Trump deficits after the tax cuts in his first term. 

The American military. Our armed forces have been weakened by attempts to involve all elements of our citizenry in defending the country.  No, really, that is what you are being told. Disagree at your own peril.

Social Security. Millions of people are fraudulently listed as really, really old and stealing from the system. Actually, many Republicans have acknowledged this has been found as a coding glitch and nobody’s getting paid. Don’t say that though, it messes up a good story.

I could list many more. Republican elected officials are trapped, having to agree with what Trump says or at least not disagree. The State of the Union speech was a nonstop cascade of lies, exaggerations and fantasies and the GOP cheering section enthusiastically endorsed it all. They accept anything, no matter how bizarre.

After all, this is a president who started his first term with a bold-faced lie about the crowd size at his inauguration, suggested windmills cause cancer, and said ingesting horse pills and Clorox was good for Covid. Folks with wet noodles for backbones swallow whatever pride they have left, hide from the facts, turn their backs on everything their party stood for, and say nothing.

How do we answer our opening question? Well, no, it’s not likely Republicans are unaware. They clearly lack the courage to speak up and the integrity to honor their oath of office.

As has been said: “Your dishonor will remain.”

Mike Levsen is a former Aberdeen mayor and a regular contributor to The South Dakota Standard.

Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons