Transparency

I just finished a book about the French Revolution that confirmed a theory that I've long suspected to be true: I don't like reading about the French Revolution.

That revolution set the template for unsuccessful, radical, militantly violent revolutions that are more typical of revolutions than the American revolution.  They begin with lofty ideals and stirring rhetoric.  They seek to fundamentally alter the entire nature of society - economic and social relations as well as political arrangements.  And they fail, precisely because they attempt so much.  Human beings can only assimilate so much change, before they kick back.

Because the revolutionaries are so ardent in their idealism, they are usually unable to  admit that they might have erred, and so, like Robespierre, the slip in coercion, authoritarianism and eventually Terror.

Another thing that happens are high-minded ideals are translated to political action is corruption.  Danton and many others enriched themselves during the revolutionary period.  They do so, because you aren't allowed to check the revolution's books.  That would be counter-revolutionary, and that gets you a visit to the guillotine.

I was struck by that when I read this article about Elliott Broidy - former GOP treasurer - and George Nader - a "fixer".  The details - as so often happens with these detailed corruption schemes - are a bit mind numbing.  Broidy and Nader represented authoritarian regimes in the Gulf who were trying to drive a wedge between America and Qatar.  They succeeded to some extent, as Trump early on sided with Saudi Arabia and UAE against Qatar.  It was a curious move then, but it seems pretty clear now that corruption was involved.

Most non-Trump supporters are aware, either generally or atomistically, of the extraordinary corruption in the Trump Administration.  Ironically, it was Trump's anti-corruption message - "Drain the Swamp" - that resonated with many of his supporters.  Because people don't like to admit when they've been conned, they tend to stick to the illusion that the con-artist sold them.  Trump supporters will be very difficult to convince that they supported the most corrupt president in history, because that would clash with their own self-image of being virtuous, upright citizens.

Sunlight, the old saw goes, is the best disinfectant.  Transparency is what destroys corruption.  For years during the French Revolution, the corrupt and the brutal elements in the regime were able to hide their crimes behind the solidarity of the revolutionary moment.  Trump is more or less banking on the same thing.

When the Terror unfolded under Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, it was impossible to ignore the continuous thud of the guillotine.  What will happen it take to get his softest support to notice the heads piling up in the public square?  Because Trump has - from the very beginning - assaulted the very idea of objective truth, his supporters are innoculated from evidence that is mounting against him.  The various Cleetus Safaris that return time and again to the struggling communities of WWC voters catalog the degrees to which the overwhelming crush of evidence of Trump's corruption simply does not penetrate their world view.

If you ask any Fox News viewer which administration was more corrupt, Obama's or Trump's, they will easily rattle off the imaginary crimes of Obama: Solyandra, Benghazi, the JCPOA, God know what else.  The existing indictments and guilty pleas of the Trump Crime Cartel - more in one year than in all of Obama's eight - simply won't register.

I've argued and will continue that there aren't enough Trump voters to re-elect him.  He continues to lose women voters who otherwise lean towards the GOP.  Every Cleetus Safari to Rustbucket, Ohio, skips over the suburbs that are moving away from the GOP. 

However, I worry about the willfully ignorant Trumpenproletariat.  They cling to their delusions about "their man."  They eat his lies like honey.  They ignore the continued blows of the guillotine.  What will they do when the Reign of Error turns on their Danton?