Who Was Duped?

When we see memes like this, unless we know the people who created them, we never really know what they mean.

If this was posted by a progressive, it would suggest that Trump supporters will one day come to realize they’ve been conned. But this could equally signify that Trumpers believe that progressives will  soon awaken with the shocking realization that the former president actually was an honest and effective servant of the American people, and that the liberal media had pulled the wool over our eyes.

In any case, I doubt that either “side” is likely to have an epiphany in this matter, that inspirational flash of insight to the effect that we have been duped.

My prediction is that Trump will ultimately be indicted, as the Department of Justice figures out that sweeping a coup attempt under the rug is an untenable action to take, if only because it invited future would-be tyrants to do the same.  However, that, in and of itself, may mean very little to his supporters; it will rather be interpreted as conformation that the Deep State, the liberal elites, the gays, and the other anti-American bogeymen have finally succeeded at removing a great president simply because of his honesty, patriotism, and courage in the face of those who would turn our nation into a socialist state.

Even if none of this happens, American democracy cannot go on carrying the Big Lie around on its shoulders, i.e., the fiction that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.  The concept that we live in a country that features systemic voter fraud cannot sustain itself indefinitely; the Republicans can’t claim for the rest of eternity that any election they lose was fraudulent.

In fact, another reason to prosecute Trump is to have the concept of voter fraud thoroughly raked over in the public eye.  His attorneys will have to either produce evidence to this effect or concede that it does not exist.