"If they succeed, their dream world will have all the integrity of a Potemkin village."

Connie Schultz posted this on FB...

Connie Schultz
From Peter Slevin. I recommend reading to the end.
Peter Slevin


Donald Trump has never met a fact he couldn’t twist. When it comes to truth, he prefers to lie.
Inaugural crowd the biggest ever. Ukraine started the war. His uncle taught the Unabomber at MIT. Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Trump Tower has 68 floors. (It really has 58.) Migrants are eating dogs and cats. Doctors do abortions “after birth.” Foreign countries pay tariffs.
And the biggest lie of all: The 2020 election was stolen.

The leader of the Republican Party hasn’t met an honest journalist he won’t disparage or an historical account he won’t dismiss if the work challenges his preferred narratives. He feels the same way about countless teachers. In his January 29th executive order on K-12 education, he wrote that schools are “imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful and false ideologies on our Nation’s children.”

What he favors — insists upon, in fact — is what he calls a “patriotic education,” described in part as “unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles.” Slavery? Discrimination? Native American heritage? The Confederacy? Disenfranchised women? Child labor? Peaceful protesters? Immigrants? Nuance? Complexity? Not part of the chat.
It's all connected, Trump’s disdain for truth, history and civics. This is more clear than ever, six months into the second term.

The belittling of journalists (“enemies of the people,” don’t you know.) The attacks on teachers and their expertise. The assault on public schools by overfunding vouchers. The mugging of universities. The takeover of the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The removal of books from military academy libraries. (Can’t trust those future warriors, the ones willing to die for their country, to figure things out for themselves.)

Do you think that Trump or the sychophantic GOP majorities in Congress care one whit about saving $1.1 billion by stripping funds from public radio and television stations, as they did last week, after approving a bill estimated to add more than $300 billion a year to the budget deficit? Do you think they found any waste or fraud in the dozens of rural stations that will be hurt most?

No, this is all an attempt to control the national narrative. To Team Trump, that means denying inconvenient facts, rewriting history, and pressuring vulnerable truth-tellers to pull their punches. If they succeed, their dream world will have all the integrity of a Potemkin village.

Why are Trump and his fantasy factory of political and communications staffers doing this?
The short answer is power. They invent enemies to rile up their supporters. They know from surveys that the clearest indicator of voting preference is educational level. And they know from experience that disinformation and misinformation work in their favor, something I’ve encountered this over and over in my reporting. Plus, no doubt, some of the purveyors believe the pablum they’re putting out.

This is bad. From a dozen angles, the damage being done is unconscionable. Yet, over the long term, I’m betting on fact-finding. That means the people who do it, the people who teach it, and the discerning students, listeners, viewers, and readers who are paying attention.

The more we keep hold of true things, and the more we convey those things thoughtfully and creatively to people with the voting power to change the political lineup, the more likely it is that the current mayhem fades into well-documented history.

Someone I interviewed yesterday in Missouri put it this way: "Everyone should be fighting for something now. Really, just pick anything. No one's coming to save us."