The Wallace Syndrome or Liar, Liar, Earth's on Fire

1.

Barack Obama once made a comment that I now paraphrase: Politicians must stretch the truth sometimes (often?), if they want to stay in power, but they must know where to draw the line. If they don't have core beliefs--one of Obama's core beliefs, for instance, was the passage of universal health care; if they will do anything to stay in power, their core is like that of a not too recently discarded apple's, rotten mush, even as they present their deliciously shiny outer selves to the public. Sometimes (often?), they go too far and their inner core dies, like a spruce destroyed by climate change. I call this phenomenon, which plagues current politics, the Wallace Syndrome. George Wallace, (1919-1998). served as governor of Alabama for four terms; he is best known for his opposition to integration.

Quite possibly the most notorious day of his career occurred on June 11, 1963, when he stood in front of the door of Foster Auditorium of the University of Alabama in a failed attempt to block the passage of two Black students from entry. This occurred nine years after the Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. the Board of Education, began the process of ending racial segregation in 1954. Federal authorities demanded that segregation be ended, to which Wallace had the following reply, "The President (i.e. John F. Kennedy) wants us to surrender the state to Martin Luther King and his group of pro-communists..."

From that comment and from his attempts to thwart desegregation, one might conclude that Wallace was one of the most rabid racists in the history of Alabama, but this is not so. Earlier, he had demonstrated some liberal tendencies, at least for a man who practiced law in the Jim Crow South. For instance, it was the custom at the time for lawyers to address African-Americans in court by their first names only, while whites were addressed with first and last names. Wallace broke with that tradition. A Black lawyer, J.L. Chestnut, said that "Judge George Wallace was the most liberal judge I ever practiced law in front of. He was the first judge in Alabama to call me 'Mister' in a courtroom.

What happened?

Power politics, you might say. In 1958, he was defeated for the governorship by John Patterson, a rabid racist and Ku Klux Klan supporter. As judge, Wallace granted probation to several African-Americans, which, among other things, such as Wallace's opposition to the Klu Klux Klan, probably cost him the election. Hard to imagine it, but Wallace was endorsed by the NAACP.

After his defeat, Wallace made the following vile statement to an aide, "You know why I lost the governor's race? ...I was outniggered by John Patterson. And I'll tell you here and now, I will never be outniggered again."

Wallace thus provides a clear illustration of the subject of this essay, namely, that many  politicians are willing to sacrifice what they know to be right in order to hold onto power. 

Wallace said of his efforts to hold onto the little integrity he had, "You know I tried to talk about good roads and good schools and all these things that have been part of my career, and nobody listened. Then I started talking about niggers, and they stomped the floor."

The 'good Christian' Wallace might have been reminded of the words of Jesus, "For what should it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul?"

Wallace proceeded to blast to smithereens whatever core of decency he had. He played the race card with a vengeance--and won. During his inauguration speech in 1963, he said the following words which have stuck to him and tarnished his reputation forever: "In the name of the greatest people who ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and I say, segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

2.

Wallace is history, but history has a strange way of repeating itself. No politician these days can be as overtly racist as Wallace. Those days are over--thank goodness! (A good deal of racism, of course remains.) Yet examples of giving up integrity to hold onto power abound. I repeat: every politician needs to stretch the truth to get elected. Stomping on the truth, however, is another matter.

An example of a politician without core values is, well, you-know-who. I understand Trump's inability to admit that he lost the last election. He is a pathological narcissist, programmed by his father to believe defeat is a fate worse than death. His Big Lie, namely, that the election was fraudulent and that 'he won it by a landslide,' is part of his pathology. He reminds me a bit like a patient I encountered during a psychiatric rotation in medical school many years ago. This poor lost soul was convinced that he was the reincarnation of Napoleon Bonaparte. He would have been devastated to realize that he was a powerless man whom the world ignored. Believing that he was someone special, thus covering up, at least temporarily, the inner realization that he was anything but, was an essential belief for him. Deep within he believed he was nothing--an extremely destructive feeling; to survive, he presented himself to the world as the reincarnation of one of the most powerful men in history.

Similarly, Trump's psyche, in order to compensate for a shaky core, demands that he be better than everyone else. Calling him a loser is one of the worst insults one could hurl at him. Therefore, he constructed the Big Lie. I get that; he's a sick man. But what about the millions of his supporters; what about the leaders of the Republican party? About seventy percent of Republicans still believe that Trump won the election! Worse, very few Republican have stated publicly what so many are reported to admit privately, namely that the Big Lie, is, well a big lie. 

3.

Most Republicans in Congress, in my opinion, have made a pact with a two-faced devil,  Greed and Power.  As I have written before, the Republican  Party is the party of the rich. The rich, of course, are a minority; to win over majorities in elections, Republicans have decided to cheat rather than go directly to the majority of voters with new programs that might help them. Therefore, they want to limit voter participation; therefore, they want to gerrymander voting districts; therefore, they want to lower taxes for the wealthy; therefore, they are out to screw the working class. Many of them have lost whatever core of integrity they had. Money, money, money, aka Power, Power, Power, that's what has corrupted and displaced that spark of decency without which a politician is a con.

Many Republicans are shams, but not all. A case in point is J.D. Vance, the author of the 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegies, and who is currently running for senator in Ohio. As many know, he grew up poor and was deeply affected by the moral decay around him--drugs, dysfunctional families, etc. He previously advocated that people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Now he blames the loss of industry, among other things, for devastating working-class America. He is against big-tech and very much against tax cuts, which have done their part in destroying much of America, at least according to him. And, as one might expect, he rails against woke liberalism.

In order to run as a Republican, and hope to win, he believed he had to make peace with Trump--whom he previously had called 'an idiot.' 

He is a proponent of 'National Conservatism,' a movement which advocates strong borders and nationalistic trade policies in an attempt to bring back America's lost industrial base.

Has he gone too far? I think he has. He says he is against tax cuts. How can one be an advocate for tax cuts in the Republican Party? He is running against a rabid Trumper. Vance has deleted all his anti-Trump tweets and has made up with the Big Liar.

Will being against immigration bring jobs back? I doubt it. Will being anti-tech bring jobs back? I doubt it. And if it were possible, would one be able to accomplish this as a Republican?

A tell-tale comment of his says it all. He said he was willing to shut down the government until Biden rescinds his  vaccine mandate. Shouldn't an advocate for the working class be for vaccine mandates?

Vance is willing to lie to gain power in order to achieve noble goals. To accomplish them as a Republican in today's America is wishful thinking.

Soon symptoms of the Wallace Syndrome will take over. He is too willing to kiss up to Trump and  his supporters. If elected, he will like his personal power so much he will forget what he had stood for as he kneels down before a golden idol. 

Decency will say, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire!

Republicans and Democrats--all politicians--are subject to the temptation of wealth and power, but there is a marked difference in the degree to which they give into it. For instance, fascism has always existed; Nazi Germany, however, was its classic manifestation. Similarly, Republicans are the classic manifestations  of the Wallace Syndrome today.

Liars, Liars, Earth's on Fire!