Legacy and Deception
“He who will lie will cheat, and he who will cheat will steal.” As the George Santos saga unravels, my inner mother’s voice repeats her father’s words. I never knew him but have a sense of a man of his time and place, a small business owner/storekeeper, deeply rooted in his tiny rural community. In a family photo, surrounded by a raft of children, though small in size, he’s the solid centering presence, satisfied with what he’s made in all parts of his life. Almost a century later, in very different times, Santos is a very kind of different kind of self-made man (literally). In photos he’s usually alone. Hard to sink roots, if you’re dissatisfied with who and where you are. Harder still to maintain connections, if you keep changing your story, shifting your identity, betraying people along the way. And now in this latest incarnation, he’s a Congressman!
The Enigma of George Santos
Santos’ remarkably nondescript face probably lends itself to amateur psych profiling. What’s behind the ordinary exterior? Pathological liar? Fabulist? Fantasist? But is the implication that he can’t stop himself or that he’s calculating, a man with a plan? His lies have mostly been smallish, to serve his own purposes, improve his standing. But could he have pulled it off (aka gotten away with it) in more, can we call them “authentic,” times?
Post-Truth Influencers: GOP’s Greek Chorus
As is it, he’s emerged as a small-time bit player at the edge of the GOP/right Greek chorus of post-truth influencers, busily churning out miasmas of paranoid conspiracy theories, political/social/cultural attacks, and relentless self-promotion. In their hands, out of their mouths, “free speech” often seems to decouple from responsibility. There’s a sense that, “Since [much of it has been] primarily an online movement made up of people who don’t use their real names, there’s no accountability….” (Chris Lehman. Deja Q. The Nation. February 20-27, 2023). But we’re also in a post-shame “attention economy.” And whether on TV, radio, or online, these folks do use their real names because, for them, that’s the whole point.
The Evolving Landscape of Shame
Back in my grandfather’s day, “….shame was a powerful force in American politics [and life]. That time is not now.” (Tamara Keith. When politicians have no shame, the old rules don’t apply. NPR. February 15, 2023). Nowadays, “it’s more important to be noticed than to be liked.” (Danielle Lee Thompson. The Real Reasons Santos Won’t Resign. Politico. February 2, 2023). Or respected or trusted. And media personalities become like performance artists, acting out, disrupting, shaking things up “yelling and screaming and denying.” (Shirin Ali. The House’s Four Options for Punishing George Santos. Slate. March 16, 2023). Jesus, quoted by St. John, said that truth will set you free. (John 8:31-32). But, in these times, falsehoods often seem to pay much better. (Philip Bump. Sean Hannity: Actually, it’s all the other media that are dishonest.Washington Post. March 2, 2023). And in that business model and marketplace, Santos has leverage on GOP leadership who need him to maintain their slim House majority.
Media: Performance Artists or Truth Seekers?
Of course, bigger actors get to tell bigger lies. Fox News has wholesaled baseless “stop the steal” narratives and claims that voting machines and software could be/had been(?) rigged to flip votes from Trump to Biden. (David Folkenflik. Off the air, Fox News stars blasted the election fraud claims they peddled. NPR. February 16, 2023). And QAnon, born on the “dark web” and still mostly online, has created its own echo-chamber world, while inching closer to mainstream. Building on the country’s long and familiar “paranoid, apocalyptic, millennial” tradition, it’s attracted roughly 20% of Americans—about 30M of us! And “disinformation” is considered a “necessary” strategy “to throw off the media and the researchers looking into the movement.” (Lehman).
The Rise of Disinformation Movements
Polarized as we are, the “other side”—mainstream media, Saturday Night Live, late night talk show host monologues—retaliates with ridicule. Can anybody really believe this stuff?! And our heads spin, and we go numb, and sometimes a bit crazed/off kilter under the constant bombardment. Recall Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, with John Tenniel’s illustration of playing cards dancing around her in a head-to-toe whirlwind. And there’s the conversation about believing impossible things. Alice laughs and insists it’s impossible, but the Queen of Hearts replies, “I daresay you haven’t had much practice. When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” George Orwell, like my grandfather, understood that there are no little lies. He reflected on the start of the Fascists’ Big Lie era. “This kind of thing is frightening to me because it often gives the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are those lies, or similar lies, will pass into history….So, for all practical purposes the lie will have become truth.” (Looking Back on the Spanish War. 1942). Too bad Orwell isn’t still here to offer his scorching insights.
Polarization, Disinformation, and the Battle of Belief
Most disturbing is the violence, hard words often leading to hard, though often inept, deeds. Q prophesies a coming “storm” of brutal reckoning for “evil, child-violating, [and blood drinking] liberals.” (Lehman). Of course, this recycles the evangelical/fundamentalist Rapture revenge fantasy. “The elect imagined themselves gazing down upon the sufferings of those who jeered at their beliefs, ignored, ridiculed, and marginalized their faith, and now, too late, realized their error.” And “the reality it purports to present is cruel, divisive, and tragic.” (Karen Armstrong. The Battle for God. Alfred A. Knopf. 2000). Think Marjorie Taylor Green advocating a new civil war, “divorce” of red from blue states. And Evangelicals’ calls for the US to become a “white nationalist Christian” country. Apparently, they missed the part of American history when the founding fathers established “separation of church and state” to avoid a repeat of Europe’s centuries of bloody sectarian violence and religious wars. Not to mention the carnage of the Civil War that almost tore this country apart. Another Lewis Carroll memory: the Queen shouting “off with their heads” of those who displease and disagree.
Legal Battles in the Post-Truth Era
Fortunately, despite recent Supreme Court decisions, the law has not yet gone full post-truth. More than 1,000 January 6 participants have been charged. Alex Jones (no relation) of InfoWars has lost two defamation suits to parents of murdered Sandy Hook children he’d spent years falsely accusing of fraud. When his defense that he believed his words failed to meet the burden of proof, he tried to duck out of paying large settlements by filing for bankruptcy. Fox News will try a freedom of the press defense in two defamation suits brought by voting machine and software companies. But discovery documents that prove Fox “talent” did not believe their unproven claims may rise to the level of “malice” required to prove defamation. (Folkenflik). No mirror in this case, but shades of Wizard of Oz, the man behind the “voting machine” curtain?
Political Scandal: Fading Out or Lingering On?
But political scandal isn’t what it used to be. Political outrage can quickly lose force, turn anti-climactic, then fade away. This may happen for Santos, though not if his fellow first-term New York Republican “colleagues” have anything to say about it. Feeling tarnished by association, they want him gone asap. But good luck, as they too come up against the same circular political logic of that slim majority. Meanwhile, he plays the injured party and accuses them of lying about him! (Olivia Beavers. New York Republicans go to all-out war against Santos. Politico. March7, 2023).
Santos: Con Man or Politician?
More con man/hustler than politician, Santos bears resembles recent “regular,” old-school, scammers. Perhaps he sees Congress as only another steppingstone to greater fame and fortune? Consider Elizabeth Holmes of the fake blood testing tech company Theranos; Sam Bankman-Fried and his celebrity shills of FTX Exchange crypto; Anna Sorokin (aka Anna Delvey), ersatz socialite and entrepreneur. They’ve all faced or will face criminal charges for “selling” fake stories to venture capitalists, other big investors, and ripping off “friends,” while diverting a significant portion of funds to luxe lifestyles. I can imagine the trio watching Santos (on TV in jail/prison common room?) and wishing they too had chosen politics, where it seems possible to “hide in plain sight.” At least for now, though ethics investigations are underway. I recall Lewis’s other title, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. In Tenniel’s drawings, our heroine passes through the mirror, and then emerges on the other side. And “what fun it’ll be, when they see me through the glass in here, but can’t get at me!” And the new Congressman, similarly untouchable for now, can safely cavort and taunt. And for him, being at the center of controversy, rather than just another first-term Congressman, is probably the cherry on top.
Scammers and the Allure of Trickster Tales
Why do people get taken in by scammers? And not just Q followers either. The web of course is full of them. But even those of us “…who never expected to be victims…often…are among the most vulnerable.” (Bob Carlson. Why Sophisticated People Are More Likely to Be Scammed. Forbes. July 25, 2022). Believing“themselves too smart and well-informed to be tricked….made them less careful.” We seem drawn to trickster tales that read like the plots of movies. And, fiction imitating life, movies have been and will be made—about Holmes and Sorokin/Delvey already. Bankman-Fried will probably soon have his moment. Trickster POV is so much sexier than tales of downtrodden victims fleeced of life savings. But Santos, though perhaps prepping for his closeup, may be stymied. His NYS Congressional “colleagues” mean to take revenge with a bill to prevent him from profiting from books or films on his exploits.
Background Checks and Political Memory
So, what can we learn here? Clearly, we need better checking of candidates’ backstories. But will that happen? A NYC screening company recently launched a “Don’t get SANTOS’D” social-media marketing campaign. “We would have known in minutes that [he] was a fraud.” (Carl Campanile. NYC vetting firm eyes silver lining to George Santos lying scandal. New York Post. February 12, 2023). But more robust checking would likely step on toes already in place and require special authorization from Congress, which can’t manage to pass universal background checks for gun purchasers. So, this may be another problem recognized, yet avoided as unsolvable.
And that brings us back to short political memories. Outrage has a very limited shelf life. So, Santos has been shoved out of his much-desired spotlight by the bank failures and calls from the ex-President for violent protests when and if he’s ever indicated. (Ayman Ismail. What’s Worse for Donald Trump Than Getting Indicted? Slate. March21, 2023). A small timer doesn’t stand a chance against the Disrupter in Chief, master at “setting the terms of a media frenzy.” (Susan B. Glasser. Trolled By Trump, Again. The New Yorker. March 23, 2023). “You’d think we would know better by now, but here we are, being rolled by Donald Trump.”
I ask myself what my grandfather and Orwell would think. I answer that truth is the only way out of the current national malaise. And that would take, at long last, prioritizing “skills at governing” over “disruptive approach[es] to politics.” (Julian Zelizer. Opinion: The one political priority that could unite a divided America. CNN. March 16, 2023.) But only time will tell if enough of us are ready and willing.