Under the baobab: January 6 hearings show ‘big lie’ was really just a con job

I grew up on the Southside of Chicago, where folklore included stories about the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre, Al Capone installing his own officials in local government, and, yes, the 1960 presidential election. I have relatives who ran numbers and operated speakeasies.

There was a better side to our town. My mother was an election judge that helped elect Harold Washington as the first Black mayor. Dr. King campaigned for better housing by moving into a tenement. I developed a nose for social justice and corruption.

The “big lie” told by the former president about having the election stolen just didn’t smell right. The story stank like week old fish, but folks kept spreading it like cream cheese on a bagel. I wondered what was going on. Was the story grounded in white supremacy or misogynistic craziness? Then the first reports from the January 6th Congressional Committee were released and it all became clear.

Apparently, days after he lost the election the former president asked donors to contribute to an “Official Election Defense Fund” that would propagate the fabrication that he had won the election. He raised $250 million to presumably fight for that erroneous position in the courts. As former Senator Everett Dirksen used to say, “a million here, a million there. Pretty soon it adds up to a lot of money.”

How much was actually spent in this effort? First, there was no actual election defense fund. That too was a fabrication. According to Bloomberg, as of Dec. 4 the total spent on overturning the election was $8.8 million. Most of the rest went into a Leadership PAC, Save America, which was also created right after the election. According to Washington Post reporter Philip Bump, “Leadership PAC funds can be used to fund basically anything, including memberships to golf clubs, travel, rallies, even payments directly to Trump himself, as long as he declares it income.” He can even use the money for reelection campaigns for himself and his cronies. The Republican National Committee will also take their cut, roughly 25%, from the plunder.

My Chicago-inspired sensibilities finally understood. The “big lie” wasn’t about reestablishing a white supremacist agenda. Rather it was a hustle to make money, a con job, “a rip off,” according to January 6th committee member Congressperson Zoe Lofgren: “Former President Trump intentionally misled his donors, asked them to donate to a fund that didn’t exist and used the money raised for something other than what he said.”

Most of the donations came in small amounts under $50, from folks attempting to postpone the inevitable evolution of our country toward inclusion and democracy. It won’t work. It didn’t work for Big Al either.

Time of transitions

This is a time of transitions. Saying goodbye to dear friend. Pastor Bonnie Kline Smeltzer was honored as she retires from University Baptist & Brethren Church after 19 years of dedicated service. Saying hello to Nalini Krishnankutty. She was appointed to the State College Borough Council to complete Rich Biever’s term. Enjoying the return of Penns Woods with a free concert on the lawn of the Arboretum.

Black2Reality, the NAACP, the Downtown State College Improvement District, Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State and the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau created a weeklong celebration for Juneteenth in honor of Emancipation, the new federal holiday. Also for Juneteenth Grace Hampton curated an exhibit at the Woskob Family Art Gallery.

In New York we saw the Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Fat Ham” at the Public Theatre written by my former grad student at Temple, James Ijames. It was wonderful. While in the city we were invited to the Yale Club to see the unveiling of the portrait of my friend, the Rev. Pauli Murray, the first African American and only the second woman to be so honored.