The Big Lie was always about racism

[Nevilledog]

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Amanda Marcotte
@AmandaMarcotte
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To really understand why the GOP base has taken on the Big Lie so whole-heartedly, it's important to recognize that it's about white supremacy. It was always about white supremacy.

salon.com
The Big Lie was always about racism
The Big Lie, like Trump's birtherism, reflects his refusal to accept that people of color are legitimate Americans
10:24 AM · Jun 22, 2022

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/22/shaye-mosss-ordeal-and-the-texas-platform-big-lie-was-always-about-supremacy/

Wandrea "Shaye" Moss's abuse at the hands of Donald Trump is terrifying for the same reason serial killers are terrifying: Because the victims feel so randomly selected. Ted Bundy roamed beaches and college campuses looking for any long-haired white girl he could torture and kill. Moss did not speculate, during her short but powerful testimony before the January 6 committee on Tuesday, on why Trump and his odious sidekick Rudy Giuliani picked her and her mother, Ruby Freeman, for a vicious smear campaign falsely accusing them of injecting fake ballots into counting machines. She didn't need to speculate, because it was painfully obvious. Trump and Giuliani wanted their victims to be Black women because their conspiracy theories about a "stolen" election are all about tickling the lizard brain racism of the GOP base.

Moss and Freeman were singled out for the same reason that Fox News runs endlessly ridiculous segments villainizing Vice President Kamala Harris for every sneeze or smile. She was targeted for the same reason Republicans turned the confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson into a circus of white resentment. Trump zeroed in on these two women for the same reason he spent years hyping the ridiculous conspiracy that President Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen of the United States. It's all a head nod in the direction of the unspeakable but clearly animating belief of MAGA nation: People of color are not legitimate American citizens.

The conspiracy theory about Moss and Freeman was, in both its intent and effect, a hate crime.
With all the right-wing noise about Dominion voting machines and "dead people voting," it can be easy for some to lose sight of how the Big Lie was, from its inception, a white supremacist conspiracy theory. The Big Lie channels the white conservative belief that only they are real Americans and gives them the pretext to discredit voters of racially diverse cities like Philadelphia and Detroit as "frauds." There were endless numbers of photos and videos of election workers counting ballots that Trump and Giuliani could pretend to see illicit activity in. They clearly wanted Black women to be the face of their accusations about "fraud" voters, and unfortunately for Moss and Freeman, they were the unlucky names pulled out of the red baseball cap. The conspiracy theory about Moss and Freeman was, in both its intent and effect, a hate crime.

The background articles giving context to Moss' testimony were a brutal reminder of what unsubtle and noxious racists both Trump and Giuliani are. Falsely accusing Freeman of supposedly passing thumb drives to Moss (it was actually candy), Giuliani literally used the phrase "like they were vials of heroin or cocaine" during a hearing with Georgia lawmakers. He was leaving nothing to chance in trying to make this conspiracy theory go viral on the right. Trump referred to Freeman as a "hustler" in his infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The over-the-top racism worked, as the lie crashed through right-wing social media like a tsunami, resulting in the horrendous abuse and threats to her life that Moss recounted Tuesday.

*snip*

[Demovictory9]

1. K&r

[dchill]

2. Everybody knows Jesus was a white guy.

[Nevilledog]

3. ...

[dchill]

4. The voice I hear is Lennon.

[2naSalit]

7. The one I hear is...

[dchill]

9. How about a blend?

Imagine there's no planet onna the other side of the sun.
It's easy iffa you try.

[asiliveandbreathe]

5. Thank you for sharing this important observation..this cannot get lost..

Moss and Freeman spoke truth to power...some of the most truthful, heart wrenching testimony of the day....

I hope they take ALL involved to the cleaner. Cannot imagine the strength they must have...losing everything WTF..

[unblock]

6. The entire right wing movement is about a hierarchical structure

Not just whites over blacks, but men over women, straight over gay, cis over trans, euro- over non-euro-, etc.

And obviously, rich over poor.

[Lonestarblue]

12. Good observation. What they call the traditional American way of life, as if everyone shares it.

Republicans use that dog whistle to bemoan the changes of the last few decades that have seen improvements in rights for LGBTQ and minorities and want everything to return to the white power structure of the 50s.

I think what sent them over the edge was Obama’s election. The idea that a black man could sit in the Oval Office in a role reserved exclusively for white males instead of being the janitor to sweep the halls just sent the hate machine into overdrive. Then Trump came along to send it into the thought that they could use violence to rid the country of minorities and Democrats. I keep thinking of the guy with an assault weapon at a Republican rally asking when they could start shooting Democrats. And now we have an ad by Eric Greitens saying its time to hunt (and presumably kill for why else go hunting) Republicans who aren’t insane enough to fall in line with their conspiracies and wacko ideas.

The Republican Party has be one the big tent of kooks and circus performers, from the religious extremists to the white supremacists to the anti-government militias to the many groups screaming about nonexistent issues like CRT. None of them have any plans or ideas for actually governing.

[unblock]

16. i agree. but when they talk about it being the american way, they're not wrong.

most reasonable people look back to the founding of the nation and focus on things like life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; e pluribus unum (from many, one); all men are created equal; etc. and see our nation as founded on the idea that all people are important, that power is derived from the people -- all of us -- and that we're all valuable and deserving of equal treatment and equal respect and fairness.

but the reality is that our nation was founded on some ugly compromises that allowed slavery to continue and thrive, at least in roughly half the country, as well as to deny the vote to women originally, etc.

the civil war largely ended institutionalized slavery, but it certainly did not end the hierarchical ideology as the south merely shifted its enforcement mechanism to jim crow and the kkk and such.

we've made much progress during and since the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and those who long for that hierarchical social structure have not been allowed to be on the main stage in the spotlight until donnie came along, and you're absolutely right, it was a backlash against obama being elected -- not once but twice; and for them to imagine a woman as president after that, it made their little brains explode.


they're on the wrong side of history, but we all should reflect that their attitude has been with us in america since the earliest days of the colonists. it was never going to go away easily.

[calimary]

10. As she spoke, and the pain fleetingly showed on her face, I couldn't help think that.

The pain actually showed itself, briefly, several times, even as she maintained poise and composure.

I cannot imagine THE BURDEN. I can't imagine having to lift that and carry it around EVERY day. Waking up to it. Living and breathing it. Knowing you're surrounded by it and feeling rightly suffocated by it,

I'm just an old white lady, so I can't understand in the fullest and most intimate extent. I can sympathize but not empathize. I never lived that. Never grew up with it - or in it. Wound up in all-girl Catholic schools that were basically all-white except for the occasional Asian student, or later on, Latina, or from India or the Middle-East.

I felt a nobility in Shaye Moss - almost intangible, but very much there - almost like when you walk past somebody's orange tree during flowering season, and get just the barest perfumed whiff of orange blossom. She made me want to stand up straight out of respect. She made me want to hug her and tell her how sorry I am for the way she was treated and disrespected. And frankly, MY feelings really didn't matter, and don't. It's HERS that do. Those in and around her community that do. Those in the hearts and minds and life-experience of her brothers and sisters and all the aunties and uncles and great/great-great grandparents that do.

Ever since I watched her (and WHILE I was watching her), I've been kicking this around in my mind. She really got to me. Deep down.

[G_j]

11. yes indeed

[leftyladyfrommo]

13. Underneath it all is pure. Unbridled. Insatiable Greed. nt

[IronLionZion]

14. They were saying a black woman judge would be unqualified

before anyone was even selected.

[soldierant]

15. "The Big Lie, like Trump's birtherism, reflects his refusal to accept that people of color are legit

or even human beings at all. It's that bad.

[malaise]

20. THIS

Obama hatred

[Hekate]

17. Good God: "Tickling the lizard brain racism of the GOP base...."

My gods, how elegantly spotted:
She didn't need to speculate, because it was painfully obvious. Trump and Giuliani wanted their victims to be Black women because their conspiracy theories about a "stolen" election are all about tickling the lizard brain racism of the GOP base.

[EndlessWire]

18. I disagree.

"The Big Lie" was about keeping Trump in power. Whatever else was going on, the whole thing was about telling people over and over and over again that the election was stolen, in order to martial their support and drive them to action. That's what Trump was doing on Jan. 6th.

I agree, what Trump et al. did to those two women was contemptable. No doubt about it, and I hope they settled for millions. But, the first priority Trump had was to convince people that the election was stolen, and those two women just happened to appear on a tape that Donald could claim showed some kind of cheating. This was just convenient for Trump.

No one knows why he would carry on about them like he did, or that Giuliani would also do it, except that their being Black was like a g-dsend to them, because then the two conspirators played on the circumstances much more freely and with emphasis on already ongoing prejudices. The part about passing the flash drive around like cocaine was particularly irritating; no one with half a brain would misunderstand what was meant by that. I hope they settled for a hell of a lot of money.

But, make no mistake, the whole thing was over keeping Trump in power, and the Big Lie was a reference to lying about who actually won the election, in order to convince the idiots in his base that they were cheated out of his presidency. Look at the trouble he got them in.

I am sorry that this happened to those two ladies. They did important work, and now they are gone. I don't blame them. We will be treated to more dirty tricks at midterms, so get ready.

I sure would like to see Moss in government in some capacity. This is her moment. Not that being a politician is a great life, but she has guts. I like that.

I partially agree with you. I just think that anyone near the "suitcases" would have been picked out of the crowd, regardless of race. Race was just one more thing they could use against the outcome of the election.

[Samrob]

19. That's why it's ok with so many people. nt

[moondust]

21. MAGA like 1860!!!!