Talking about a revolution: & primary and secondary sources (and Shakespeare, a little bit)

Using political cartoons, a photo editing tool and Google slides, anyone can create a visual guide to what they are trying to say.

“Et tu, Brute?”

That’s probably the only Shakespeare that most Americans remember from High School English. Considering what we witnessed on January 6^th, it seems apropos. Conspiracies, betrayal, government overthrows, these things have all been with us for a long time. The day of the insurrection, looking out at the sea of people who were storming the Capitol, it was easy to identify where this group’s allegiances were. Besides the obligatory American flags and the easily identifiable MAGA hats, there were a few hilariously theatrical Trump posters, too many disturbingly racist banners and most notoriously, Q signs and symbols announcing that there was a strong undercurrent of people who had arrived under instructions from a mysterious task master, supposedly working with the POTUS.

One of the most disturbing things that has come out of the aftermath of the riots and the attempted coup is that many of the people that were there, live in a separate reality ruled by a different set of facts. “Alternative” facts, is what U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway called them on January 22, 2017 at a Meet The Press interview. This kind of doublespeak is what George Orwell warned about. It is the kind of alternative world building that Donald Trump has been engaged in his entire life. Even way back in the Art of the Deal, where he first spoke about “truthful hyperbole”, our disgraced former president has always been what my mother called a, “mentiroso asqueroso*”.

Like a bad dream that had taken material form, Qanon came to life and was now clad in blue jeans, layered flannel and hiking boots; its presence in the Capitol riots could be seen everywhere. And like Brutus, who thought of himself as an honorable man and wanted nothing but the best for Rome, but who lacked the political savvy and historical understanding of his co-conspirators, the insurrectionists were betrayed and lied to. In a final display of both their misdirection and misguidedness, the rioters were able to breach the security and storm the halls of both the Senate and the House, roam the offices of our representatives, collect mementos of their treason, document and share online their capital crimes and otherwise celebrate the strangest (and quickest) American “revolution” ever.

Most of them left peacefully, stepping over broken glass and splintered wood, taking a final picture perhaps of a ransacked office or sneaking a last look up at the ceiling of the great rotunda, completely unaware that they had participated in an insurrection. Yet, in the end, whatever they thought was going to happen, didn’t happen, because it couldn’t happen. It was never going to happen. They had been lied to and betrayed.

The truth matters. Especially in a free, democratic society.

Please find below some links to resources I find useful in trying to understand Trump, the person and candidate, The Trump Presidency and the Trump Insurrection. Surely, history will tell us a different story as time goes on, but I think it is important for us in the present to grapple with this character and what his tenure in power says about us as a nation.

* disgusting liar

Art as Protest: Political Cartoons in the Age of Trump

Cartooning The Trump Years: The Views from Opposing Political Planets

A Game Designer’s Analysis Of QAnon: Playing with Reality by Reed Berkowitz

Truthfull hyperbole, honest bullshit: Ancient Rhetoric Explains Why Trump’s Lies Work So Well by Daniel Ruprecht

Have a great day, and I hope that you are staying safe.

Primary sources: For students at Haverhill High School, these are very important research resources, as they are first-person interviews with people who were at the center of the action. That does not mean that everything they say is to be taken as TRUTH, but that their stories are solid data points for our cumulative knowledge.

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

The FRONTLINE Transparency Project gives everyone access to hours of original reporting and source material that goes into the making of their films. The Transparency Project gives the audience access to an amazing catalog of mostly uncut and unedited interviews from a number of FRONTLINE investigations. I counted eight (8) different projects and two hundred and eight seven (287) interviews and transcripts.

Trump’s American Carnage| FRONTLINE

Frank Luntz (interview} January 27, 2021

Republican strategist and pollster. Some would say he has been the great message maker and spin doctor for the Republicans for the last 30 years.

Bob Corker (interview} January 27, 2021

Tennessee Senator from 2007-2019. Corker decided not to run for reelection in 2017 and has been an outspoken critic of Trump.

Olivia Troye (interview} January 27, 2021

Long-time Republican who served under Mike Pence, but endorsed Joe Biden in the last Presidential election.

Trump’s Twitter Archive| 56,571 Tweets

The Complete List of Trump’s Twitter Insults (2015-2021)

Kevin Quealy Jan. 19, 2021

Deleted Tweets From Donald J. Trump, R-Fla.

Secondary sources: Unlike primary sources, secondary sources add another layer of analysis or understanding between you and the source. Even documentaries leave material on the cutting room floor, and that means that you are not getting all the information that there is.

Trump: What’s The Deal?| Full Documentary (1991)