[New post] December 27 2022 Subversion of Democracy Through Electing Fictional Identities as Figureheads of Hegemonic Elites: the Case of George Santos
jayofdollhousepark posted: " We have now a Brazilian con artist and petty criminal who may not be an American citizen elected to Congress, a very Trumpian bundle of lies and rewritten history, a simulacra of a human being as Baudrillard called it in which image co" Torch of Liberty
We have now a Brazilian con artist and petty criminal who may not be an American citizen elected to Congress, a very Trumpian bundle of lies and rewritten history, a simulacra of a human being as Baudrillard called it in which image conceals nothing at all, an empty space of amoral meaninglessness and the arrogance of wealth and power like the Republican Party which chose him as a puppet of its interests and their paymasters, hegemonic elites of wealth, power, and patriarchal and white supremacist privilege.
It is a fable which echoes that of Jerzy Kosinski's Being There and the magnificent satire Wag the Dog, and I wonder now why we even bother with electing human representatives, so fraught with chances of scandal and filled with secrets, when we could create artificial politicians who would be nothing more than what we wish them to be, reflections and instruments of our will?
Of all his outrageous fabulations and acts of betrayal of public trust, George Santos' claim of Jewish identity and family history of Holocaust survivorship is a particularly vicious deceit, on the order of Stolen Valor and in light of the history of forced conversions under Catholic law in medieval Spain. We have a ready parallel figure of George Santos in Martin Borman, who escaped justice for so long in the concealment of a false identity as a Jewish survivor of the crimes he in fact perpetrated.
In the words of the magnificent Lt Aldo Raine in the film Inglorious Basterds; "I can't abide it. Can you abide it?"
As written by Heather Cox Richardson in her journal Letters From An American; "It turns out that Republican George Santos, 34, who was just elected to represent New York's Third District, lied about his education, saying he had attended schools he had not, and lied about his work experience, falsely claiming to have worked at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. He claimed to be the grandson of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust; now he says he meant he was a Catholic with Jewish heritage—although there is no evidence of that, either—and so thinks of himself as "Jew-ish." He claimed to have lost employees at the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, but when there was no evidence for that, either, he claimed the employees were in the process of being hired.
Santos also has an outstanding criminal charge in Brazil, where there is evidence he stole an elderly man's checks—he denies this, although has produced no evidence—and questions about where the $700,000 he apparently lent to his 2022 campaign came from, since he was in trouble over relatively small outstanding debts as recently as 2020. Finally, as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo points out, although Santos claims to have been born in Queens to immigrants from Brazil, it is not entirely clear that he is a U.S. citizen. Former co-workers say he told them he was born in Brazil.
That point, at least, should be easy to clear up.
"If I disappointed anyone by my résumé embellishment, I'm sorry," Santos said in a radio interview but claimed that "a lot of people overstate in their résumés" and such fictions would not hurt his ability to do the job he was elected to do. "I will be sworn in," he said. "I will take office."
Democrats Joaquin Castro of Texas and Ted Lieu of California have called for Santos to step aside, but with the Republican majority in the House resting on five seats, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and other sitting Republican lawmakers have been unwilling to speak out about Santos's lies. McCarthy needs all the votes he can muster to make him House speaker, even if it means overlooking Santos's fabrications and hoping voters will forget quickly.
Two incoming Republican representatives have called him out, though, suggesting they are more interested in protecting the future of the party than its current incarnation. If revelations continue to drop, the newbies might have called the situation better than their more senior colleagues."
As written by Steve Benen in MSNBC's Rachel Maddow blog, in an article entitled GOP's Santos acknowledges some of his lies, but questions remain.
If George Santos thinks his grudging acknowledgements of some of his lies will end his scandal, the New York Republican will likely be disappointed; "It was about a week ago when The New York Times first broke the news about Rep.-elect George Santos and the apparent fact that he made up a personal biography filled with brazen lies. This wasn't just an instance of minor embellishments; the incoming Republican congressman appears to have lied about his educational background, his private-sector experience, and even his nonprofit experience.
Though it hardly seemed possible, the story managed to get worse soon after, as evidence emerged that Santos also lied about being Jewish. The incoming congressman also faced awkward questions about his former marriage and the suspicious speed with which he became wealthy.
It took several days, but The Associated Press reported that the Long Island Republican has now acknowledged his deceptions — at least some of them.
Rep.-elect George Santos, R-N.Y., admitted Monday that he lied about his job experience and college education during his successful campaign for a seat in the U.S. House. In an interview with the New York Post, Santos said: "My sins here are embellishing my resume. I'm sorry."
"I'm embarrassed and sorry for having embellished my résumé," he added. "I own up to that. ... We do stupid things in life." Santos went on to tell the New York Post, "I campaigned talking about the people's concerns, not my résumé."
Of course, in reality, that's absurd. The idea that the congressional candidate didn't campaign on his personal background is at odds with how campaigns work: Santos lied about his biography in the hopes of impressing voters. If he wasn't running on his résumé, the GOP candidate wouldn't have felt the need to lie in the first place.
As things stand, we can now drop "allegedly" from several of Santos' lies. Before getting elected, he said he graduated from Baruch College, but he's now conceded that he never graduated "from any institution of higher learning." He also boasted to voters about working at Citigroup and spending some time at Goldman Sachs, and he's now acknowledged that those claims were also false.
As for his real estate background, the Post's article added, "Santos also admitted to lying when he claimed that he owned 13 different properties, saying he now resides at his sister's place in Huntington but is looking to purchase his own place."
My personal favorite relates to his faith. "I never claimed to be Jewish," Santos said. "I am Catholic. Because I learned my maternal family had a Jewish background I said I was 'Jew-ish.'"
First, that's an old joke, not something people should present as an actual defense. And second, he absolutely claimed to be Jewish, which means the incoming congressman has lied about lying.
By all appearances, Santos spoke to the Post in the hopes of putting this mess behind him. Indeed, he explicitly told the newspaper, "I intend to deliver on the promises I made during the campaign."
But if the New Yorker thinks some grudging acknowledgements of reality will resolve this mess, he's likely to be disappointed.
Santos still hasn't addressed several elements of the larger controversy, including questions surrounding his finances, his marriage, and his fraud allegations in Brazil. What's more, he's facing the prospect of ethics and criminal investigations surrounding his con job, and they won't simply disappear now that he's conceded that he lied.
Finally, the Post's article added:
Senior House Republicans were apparently aware of the inaccuracies and embellishments in the rep-elect's resume, and the topic became a "running joke," multiple insiders close to House GOP leadership told The Post over the weekend. "As far as questions about George in general, that was always something that was brought up whenever we talked about this race," said one senior GOP leadership aide. "It was a running joke at a certain point. This is the second time he's run and these issues we assumed would be worked out by the voters."
If that's accurate, it raises a different set of questions for Republican leaders on Capitol Hill: What did top GOP officials know about Santos' lying and when did they know it?"
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