Dear Editor:

The “big lie” is, “a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the facts, especially when used as a propaganda device by a politician or official body”. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler. One of the most consistent practitioners was Soviet Russia. The “big lie” is still a principal tool of Russian disinformation.

Fast forward to 2021.

Does the “big lie” sound familiar? It should. It is the principal propaganda tool used by former President Donald Trump to discredit the results of the 2020 election.  Donald Trump’s use of the “big lie” is part of a pattern of lies and distortions used from the inception of his first campaign and throughout his term of office.

A vital part of the Donald Trump’s “big lie” have been members of Congress and other high-profile individuals who have lent credence to the “big lie” of the “election steal.”  Their tools included groundless lawsuits (essentially all dismissed by state and federal courts throughout the country), demands for recounts (all of which confirmed the election results), “objections” in Congress to accepting the election results as certified by both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state and governors and, most recently, speeches haranguing mobs to attack the Capitol and the members of Congress assembled there to prevent them from accepting the election results.

The danger of the “big lie,” and the reason Hitler, the Russians and demagogues worldwide use it, is that there will always be gullible people who will believe it and who can be led to violent action in the name of the “big lie.”

The answer to the “big lie” is always the same: tell the truth. We have witnessed the terrible danger of the “big lie.”

Now we must hold those who promulgated and supported the “big lie” to account.

Bruce Menke

Athens