In 1900, Galveston, Texas, was a booming city. Its population, and its prospects, rivaled Houston.
But on a warm September day, an infamous hurricane plowed into the city, damaging 3,600 buildings and killing as many as 12,000 of its citizens, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association estimates. Among the fatalities were children in a Catholic orphanage whose bodies were found, along with the nuns who ran the facility, buried in the sand at the beach.
Galveston and its people were caught unprepared. That much you probably know. What you may not know is why: Hubris, jealousy and racism.
Days before the hurricane hit Galveston, it passed to the north of Cuba, where meteorologists rightly predicted its westward path and tried to share that information with the fledgling U.S. Weather Bureau, predecessor to the National Weather Service. The U.S. bureau predicted a different path for the storm, and its director – presumably out of jealousy for Cuba’s better weather tracking record at the time – cut off communication with the Cuban bureau.
Our bureau’s dead wrong prediction for the storm’s path stood until, of course, Galveston didn’t. The prediction’s provable falseness or devastating consequences aside, what mattered was America First.
Also among the dead, by the way, was the wife of the Weather Bureau’s own meteorologist stationed there.
Divorcing yourself from the facts because it makes you feel more patriotic, manlier, more in tune with your racial identity, or whatever, potentially hurts people. When you insist on electing leaders who play on those themes by leaning on lies and obfuscation, it’s certain to hurt people.
And not just whomever you think are “those” people. You can be hoisted on that petard just as easily.
Still, Donald Trump and JD Vance are using this strategy to great effect, spouting provably false nonsense to support a racist, misogynistic and authoritarian agenda. The Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are there legally. Fact. They aren’t eating people’s pets or the geese from the park. Fact. But in spite of these ugly rumors leading to bomb threats at Springfield’s schools and other public facilities, Trump and Vance continue to gleefully amplify them every chance they get in hopes you will believe their version of events instead of the provable truth.
Not because it helps you in any way, but because it might help them gain power.
Post-birth abortions aren’t legal in any U.S. state. Fact. Transgender operations aren’t happening at school. Fact. Trump lost the 2020 election, and he knows it. Fact. Jan. 6, 2021, was a violent, and thankfully failed, insurrection, not “a day of love.” Fact.
Just like the track of the Galveston hurricane, the truth that disproves all of Trump’s insane campaign stump claims is easy enough for the willing to discern. Unlike the people of Galveston, however, we should be prepared for this. We’ve seen it from Trump before.
Remember when COVID-19 wasn’t a big deal? Remember when it was going to disappear “like a miracle” on its own? Remember how ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were the cures? Then Trump claimed, in a White House press briefing, that injecting bleach would protect you?
While an inconvenient truth took 1 million American lives and ravaged the economy, Trump lied, lied and lied some more instead of facing the crisis like a leader.
In this campaign, he’s shown no signs of growth from the experience. I’d argue he’s regressing.
His method then, and now, has been to use lies to attack his opponents, then use them again on defense to protect himself from the truth.
It doesn’t matter how outrageous the lie. It doesn’t matter who it hurts. All that matters to Trump is that he benefits.
Nearly 125 years ago, a lie steeped in patriotic pride cost thousands of savable lives in Galveston. Four and five years ago, a man who chose himself over the nation actively obstructed science and asked you to do the same so he could look more in control. Then he tried tirelessly to trample the Constitution so he could stay in power and incited a mob to help him do it.
Rewarding this type of nonsense only ever ends one way. Let’s not do it again Nov. 5.
Zack Plair is managing editor of The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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