Beyond the clatter of political tumult, Donald Trump has done immeasurable harm to the United States.
The damage in question has little to do with his policy choices, his appointments or the causes he has embraced. It runs deeper and spreads wider than mere politics — like an oil spill that cannot be contained. It has poisoned virtually every aspect of our democracy.
Since Trump took office, our political culture has split down the middle and all but fallen apart; our stature in the world has tumbled from a high pedestal to a low pathos; our leadership in science and technology has been sullied by superstition and conspiracy theory; our role in the global economy has lurched backward toward the Depression era; and our sense of ourselves as a people united by founding ideals has been replaced by the racial and cultural animosities of the Civil War.
Yet nothing has suffered more than our signature commitment to truth. Our Founding Fathers made universal truth the bedrock of our nationhood, the motivating power of our Declaration of Independence, the reasoning behind our Constitution, and the touchstone of our judicial system. For us, living by the rule of law meant living by the light of truth.
Donald Trump has changed all that. He has spun out an alternate reality to that of the Founders, based not upon truth but upon falsehood. He has explored every way to deceive, distract, distort, deflect, evade, avoid, undermine and overthrow the legitimate work of government by piling mendacity upon mendacity until the tower of lies collapses of its own weight.
Which is exactly what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic reached our shores. The coronavirus was terrible, to be sure, but it was not unbeatable, for all over the world people began learning how to beat it by mobilizing science, public spirit and above all courageous leadership.
In America, by contrast, there was no leadership, none at all. Indeed, Trump pursued a sort of anti-leadership with his parade of comments, criticisms and assorted pronouncements which, no matter how bizarre or wrong-headed, bore the stamp of the presidency and were revered by his personal following.
It goes without saying that as Trump’s disinformation continued to multiply, the death toll continued to mount.
Consider a single instance, hydroxychloroquine. Trump’s insistence on its use as a cure-all for the pandemic has become ever more strident as the science supporting it became ever more doubtful. This week the issue descended into something like comic opera as the Trump campaign trotted out a panel of white-coated “doctors,” posed them in front of a hospital to which they did not belong, and asked them to endorse hydroxychloroquine, which they readily did.
One of them, who had recently discoursed about “demon sperm” and “alien DNA,” assured reporters that with this marvelous drug there would be no further need for mask-wearing, social distancing or any of the other relevant science. It would simply make COVID-19 “miraculously disappear.”
The lesson is clear. Leadership must be based upon truth not falsehood. For leaders to lead, they must know where they are going and know that rational people will follow them only for good and substantial reasons.
Falsehood doesn’t work that way. Falsehood grows out of a cult of personality and shape-shifts according to the whims and fancies of the boss. Some may follow out of fear or foolhardiness but none will follow out of human reason or a respect for truth.
And so we find ourselves heading into the election that will determine America’s future — perhaps determine whether America has a future.
There can be only one outcome if we are to continue as a free democracy. We must decide once and for all to stand on the side of truth.
Frank Fox
Frank W. Fox is professor emeritus of American history at Brigham Young University and co-founder of the university’s American Heritage Program.