October 14, 2024

Oledammegard

Types of civil law

Right Wing Projection. Two Recent Examples (Wendy Bell and Doug Mastriano)

From The Bulwark:

The Republican party has transformed projection from a psychological
phenomenon into a political strategy. In a clinical setting,
projection—accusing others of one’s own flaws—is an uncontrollable
behavior. While that may be true of Donald Trump (Lord knows he presents as a compelling case for psychoanalysis), it is not true for his loyal minions. For them it is a conscious effort to stuff reality down the memory hole.

Recently, two Pennsylvania right wing nut jobs did it.

We’ll go alphabetically by last name.

First, there’s Wendy Bell:

Right Wing Projection. Two Recent Examples (Wendy Bell and Doug Mastriano)

Her whole argument, such as it is, hinges on one phrase “…voted to certify without investigating the mountains of evidence of fraud.”

Um, Wendy? Trump’s own AG, William Barr investigated and found nothing:

That was broadcast in late June, 2021.

Didja miss it, Wendy? Your whole position rests on a lie you continue to spread.

Wendy is correct in one way, however. Remove the projection and tweak the text into:

Any lawmaker [who participated in Trump’s attempted coup] not only created a national emergency, they violated their oath of office and should be removed and prevented from ever serving again.

There. Fixed it.

But this leads us directly to our next right wing nut job projector: St Sen (and failed GOP cand. for PA Gov) Doug Mastriano. He participated in Trump’s attempted coup and he betrayed this oath of office:

I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey
and defend the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge the
duties of my office with fidelity.

He should be removed from office and prevented from ever serving again.

But his projection wasn’t about the big lie. It was this:

No, Doug. That would be Donald Trump. Trump lied and people died.

President Donald Trump acknowledged the dangers of the
coronavirus pandemic in a February interview with journalist Bob
Woodward and acknowledged downplaying the threat in an interview a month
later, according to an account of Woodward’s new book.

“I
wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down because I
don’t want to create a panic,” Trump said in a March 19 call with
Woodward, according to an audio clip posted Wednesday on The Washington Post’s website. The newspaper obtained a copy of the book, “Rage,” which is scheduled to be released next week.

In the same interview, Trump acknowledged that the disease was more deadly than he previously thought.

Donald Trump lied to the American people about the virus and lots and lots of people died.

And Doug? Your friend Wendy Bell did the same.

I would like to say that the two of you, Doug and Wendy – Wendy and Doug) should be ashamed of yourselves but we all know that neither of you, if the readily available public evidence has any validity, have shown any ability to feel any shame or remorse about your actions in any way, shape or form.

None.