Debunk “The Lie” Or Prepare For Blood On Your Hands

Today on the KIT Morning News, we spent a fair amount of time dissecting an opinion piece in today's (1/14/21) Yakima Herald Republic entitled  "Debunk Trump's Lie Or Prepare For Blood On Your Hands."

The piece was written by Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  She's a national award winner, a Pulitzer finalist, and a well traveled experienced foreign correspondent.

To borrow a line from the next President, "Here's The Deal", the piece is half right and half wrong. It poses the right problems and potential consequences of an unsettled half the Country give or take.  However in my opinion she offers the wrong solutions. In fact her solutions pose an increasing risk of possibility of the very problems she points out!

Let me try it this way.  In the movie Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ironman wants to save the earth from the various threats that plague the comic book universe so he creates a super powerful, artificial Intelligent, robot to analyze threats and protect the earth.  One problem - Ultron analyzes and concluded that people are the greatest threat to the planet and mankind so Ultron decides to wipeout all humans, his superhero inventors included.   Right idea -Wrong Solution...but it made 1.4 Billion at the box office!

So her premise is that the Country will never heal from or prevent future attacks like the one on the Capitol on Wed. 1/6/21 unless we debunk "The Big Lie" -the idea that Trump won the election.  I agree.  She says that if anyone else is hurt or killed, Republican leaders will have "blood on their hands" unless they tell the Trump supporters that the President lost a fair election.  She says "GOP leaders -Except The Brain Dead- know that Biden won fairly."  She adds that, "unchecked, the Big lie will eat at our democracy like a cancer."  Again, on that part I agree.

Butthe answer to her "Big Lie" issimply to say and accept that Trump lost without question.  The Big Lie on the other side is that words mean nothing without proof and a fair audit of all allegations.

Her answer requires conversation without demonstration.  She says we need to "debunk" the lie but with her credentials she should remember that debunk is a verb, it requires A-C-T-I-O-N.  The Oxford Dictionary definition is "expose the falseness or hollowness of (a myth, idea, or belief)."  

If you you want half the Country to accept the election and move on toward unity it will take more than GOP leaders simply saying so.  Words won't work.  Remember how the left didn't believe Trump won his election fairly...despite millions of words and years long  investigations....they never accepted it and look how that affected the last four years.

So YES Ms.Rubin you are half right, the future is unsure, the cancer has started to infect the Country,  the Country won't function properly with half the population doubting the fairness of the election...but  the solution isn't more words.  Let's get about the business of the VERB debunking...demonstrating what happened...in order to calm and reclaim the mainstream supporters and tamp down the extremists.  What's that Ms Rubin?  It's too late for that?  The time for debunking came and went?  Oh boy. That's not good.

Then lets hope the first part of your premise is wrong too. Let's hope, pray and work for peace and unity. And let's pray and hope that the trouble you suggest could occur-with half the Country not trusting the election outcome- doesn't materialize and further tear at fabric of our Nation.  Let's hope you are wrong twice.