56 Comments

The way for this scamming was paved by the 2010 Citizens United ruling, and reinforced by continued GOP opposition that blocked repairing our nation's broken campaign finance laws. Transparency is a joke. Citing its misguided label of 'free speech", a majority of Supreme Court justices will most likely block reform that could shine a bright light on these rip-offs.

Expand full comment

Trump was the racist religious extremist Right's trial balloon - hot air buffoon - for repurposing a democratic republic as a clerical fascist state.

Their (Koch, Mercer, Corkery, Scaife, Seide et al) useful man is Leonard Leo. His network funneling dark money from dodgy donors through dubious corporations to antidemocratic causes. The specious Federalist Society rhetoric of originalism/textualism turning the Constitution on its head to drain justice out of American law. (While retaining judicial procedure to end equality before the law and equal representation.)

And now Leo funded groups filing amicus briefs in favor of the 'independent legislature theory' before the Roberts Court Federalist Society majority. Had this theory - which removes state constitution checks and balances from state regulation of federal elections - been in effect in 2020, then GOP gerrymandered state legislatures could have unilaterally given their state electoral votes to Trump.

An amicus brief expose by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Henry (Hank) Johnson (including research by TrueNorth's Lisa Graves)

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-1271/244031/20221206153808434_2022-10-25pm%20Moore%20v.%20Harper%20CLEAN2.pdf

Expand full comment

It's very difficult to persuade a man that he's been snookered.

Expand full comment

Thank you for your cogent analysis of The Big Steal. I so appreciate your substack. Respect from a fellow historian who is inspired by your work and your activism!

Expand full comment

The lack of accountability is staggering. All of this happened in plain sight. And now, two years later, the foxes are in the hen house mucking up Congress. In. Plain. Sight. Voting matters.

Expand full comment

As you’ve described Trump supporters (not his co-conspirators who were fully aware the Big Lie was indeed a lie) were manipulated and scammed into truly believing the election was stolen. Millions of them donated their hard earned money and hundreds of them participated in storming the Capitol on Jan 6. One can almost feel sorry for them. It appears many of them may actually be held accountable for the damage they did as a result of being manipulated. But the master manipulator continues to get off scot-free as well of accept their money to this day!! Given that many of these folks, indeed almost any person who has been scammed and taken advantage of, will not or cannot admit they were scammed, what can the rest of us do to prevent their continued dangerous activities? They’ve been brainwashed. Can they be re-programmed? And if so how? Whenever I try to even gently share actual facts, with deluded family members and/or friends, I am invariably met with resistance, anger, and an unwillingness to accept the truth. I’m kind of at a loss. And given the current chaos of the House of Representatives and the right wing loaded SCOTUS, I don’t see any legislative solutions on the horizon. I fear and worry our democracy is slipping through our fingers and we don’t have many effective, non-violent, legal paths to stop it.

Expand full comment

"And giving money is an action, a commitment. You don't give money to people you think are scamming you. And once you have given the money, it becomes almost unthinkable that you have been scammed. Once Trump’s supporters made a contribution, they had bought in to the Big Lie."

This is called the sunk cost fallacy, and it kills people all around the world all the time. Our brains have in-built heuristics that are highly flawed and extremely dangerous. If there is a god, it truly screwed the pooch when it developed these flawed algorithms that make it hard for us to admit we have been conned.

Expand full comment

A brilliant analysis expressed in layman's language. It lays bare multiple failings in America's body politic, and paints a particularly clear picture of Trump's corrupting influence aided and abetted by Republican diehards.

Expand full comment

Wow, did you ever nail it, Mr. Snyder. I'd thought about some of these pieces but I hadn't put them all together, and I wasn't seriously considering the crucial role of the RNC.

Expand full comment

Dr. Snyder shows how Trump was able to con his followers "long after the election results were absolutely clear, furthering separating them from reality." Separation from reality: that's the key. I remembered something from Ian Tattersall's 2008 book, "The World From Beginnings to 4000 BCE." Tattersall wrote that our species is unique: "Human beings are symbolic creatures. Inside their heads they break down the outside world into a mass of mental symbols, then recombine those symbols to recreate that world. What they subsequently react to is often the mental construct, rather than the primary experiences themselves. And such re-creations differ from person to person and from society to society, which is what ultimately lies behind most of the conflicts and disagreements that we encounter in recorded human history." [p. 101]

Expand full comment

Thank you for your commentary, Dr. Snyder. You mentioned some points I had not thought about before, connections I had not made. I appreciate your work.

Expand full comment

Thank you, Dr. Snyder for keeping all of us focused on the Big Lie and the fraud and complicity it fostered.

Expand full comment

May "The Big Ripoff" along with "the Big Lie" continue to reverberate finding a way into the ears of those that were ripped off and further defend it to avoid looking at the the sap in the mirror. They have been thoroughly had. Paul Krugman in his subscriber newsletter: "the real power lies in the Republican Party... outside its formal structures".. the appeal of pacs, fundraising groups and personality driven politics "drunk on the camera lights" who know nothing nor care about governing yet call themselves "true conservatives". May we survive this.

Expand full comment

The scamming on the right is a feature for those propagating it and using it to bilk money from those who are gullible (far too many). Plays on emotion and insecurity of those who feel left behind, even if they are not. If this were being done by a boiler room operation claiming to be a charity or a company, FTC and others would investigate, shut them down, and sue and jail for fraudulent business practices. My question is, “Why should political speech be different?”

But now, we have the problem of doubling down in that those who were scammed cannot admit they were scammed as it feeds into their already fragile egos and insecurities, so they persist and even grow more strident to drown out the voices in their head (and from others) that they have been conned. Call it a variation of the Dunning-Krueger effect.

While Trump and his ilk may not be the brightest in many ways, they know how to manipulate people. And Trump being a classic malignant narcissist had to have a plan to keep his ego intact and be the center of attention and hold on as long as possible. So that this was a well laid out plan is not shocking. I have seen this play out first hand in the C suite during succession and transition, having worked for somebody who was also a malignant narcissist. The fragile ego demands staying on top regardless of how it is done.

Expand full comment

Now, what?

Expand full comment