‘Legerdemain’ is the term used when referring to the sleight of hand tricks performed by magicians. However, it is also used at times to describe what is going on in politics. An example,” Political reporters were dazzled by his legerdemain in stealing a traditionally Republican issue, promising more law enforcement on the streets and tougher penalties for juvenile offenders. – NBC News, 20 Nov 2020”. The fact is, we should all be paying close attention to what is going on in the political world because ‘legerdemain’ has become a staple of politics these days. The Republicans have become particularly adept at using this technique.
There are two primary but related techniques in use these days. First of all, there is the classic technique of misdirection. This is where you get the audience (‘the base’) to get all focused and riled up about issues that will distract their attention from what is really going on. The Republicans’ current efforts to fan the flames of cultural issues is nothing but an extraordinary example of legerdemain in action.
The conservative base is all riled up these days about schools teaching Critical Race Theory, abortion, Second Amendment Rights, and, of course our favorite, mask and vaccine mandates. Never mind that most people cannot articulate exactly what Critical Race Theory is and the fact that it is not being widely taught in schools across the nation today. Never mind that the majority of Americans want to keep access to abortion legal and the Roe v. Wade decision intact. Never mind that Americans already personally possess more guns than any other country in the world and have the highest death toll from gun violence – and it’s increasing. And never mind that more people have died in the United States, arguably the richest and most technologically advanced country in the world, from COVID and masks and vaccines are scientifically proven methods to help control the spread of this disease. None of that matters, because the Republicans have become masters at misdirecting the ‘audiences’ attention from the facts.
The second ‘magical’ technique widely in use by the Republican today is to use verbal legerdemain to disguise the real purpose behind some of their actions. All of the voter suppression legislation that is being passed in Republican controlled states is cloaked in terms of ‘voter integrity’, which sounds wonderful, but the fact is the measures are meant to suppress a certain segment of the vote (those votes that tend to go Democratic). Even the Bozeman Chronicle called this out in an opinion piece this morning just to show the absurdity of all of this entitled, “GOP is engaging in absurd political theater.”
“Republican candidates won every statewide race in the 2020 general elections. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump won the state handily. And GOP candidates won enough legislative races to widen their majorities in the state House and Senate. It was a historic sweep by the party.
And so, the vast majority of state GOP lawmakers want a special committee to investigate the state’s election system. Some are even calling for a special legislative session to pass more restrictive election laws.
Yes, you read that right. Republican legislators are waging an assault on an election they won – overwhelmingly won. That’s just how kooky this whole election nonsense has gotten.”
Another recent example is when Mitch McConnell and all of his Republican colleagues got religion about ‘fiscal responsibility’ and brought the United States to the brink of economic disaster by refusing to raise the debt ceiling. Fiscal responsibility sounds great but it is a concept they refused to acknowledge when they voted to pass the massive tax cuts that primarily went to the wealthy and ran up the debt $7.8 trillion under the Trump administration.
The worst and most egregious example of verbal legerdemain is the ongoing attempt by Republican to repackage and rewrite the events surrounding the insurrection that took place on January 6th. Polls suggest that a majority of Americans would like to know the truth about what led up to and precipitated that dark stain on American history. However, the Republicans are busy using verbal gymnastics in what can only be viewed as the classic carnival ‘shell game’. Which cup is the truth really under?
All of this ‘magic’ is designed for one sole purpose. It has nothing to do with ‘Making America Great.’ It has nothing to do with solving the real day to day problems most American face. This magic show and all of the sleight of hand going on has one purpose and one purpose only – so the Republicans can regain and keep power! And, if you think there is legerdemain going on now, if Trump or a Trump-like clone is re-elected and the Republican regain control of Congress then we could witness one of the most devastating magical acts in recent memory – poof! Democracy as we know it – all gone!