In the classic tale by Hans Christian Andersen, two swindlers, posing as weavers, offer to supply the emperor with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them and they pretend to weave a suit and to dress the emperor. Everyone sees that the emperor is naked but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought fools. Finally, a child blurts out the obvious truth that the emperor is naked and everyone realizes that it is so but the emperor continues to strut, clothing-less, down the street.
The weavers and the emperor have arrived in America. They have woven the lies that there was massive fraud in the 2020 presidential election, that Joe Biden is not the President and that Donald Trump won the election. This transparent falsehood, created from whole cloth by the “emperor” who lost the election, is kept alive by those who see that this is a lie but who, fearing the emperor’s wrath, pretend that they do not.
When we blind ourselves to the truth before our eyes, we attack the heart of our democracy: public confidence in the integrity of our elections.
The myth of the stolen election is as transparently false as the emperor’s invisible suit.
If we allow them to do so, the emperor and his lie and those who pretend they do not see through it will destroy our democracy.
Bruce Menke
Athens