Mythology or fact. In American mythology Teddy Roosevelt said to “speak softly and carry a big stick.” He never went around actually beating people over the head, but it did get him a prominent spot on Mount Rushmore. President Donald Trump seems to have taken Teddy’s myth to heart with his South American diplomacy. To paraphrase President Teddy Roosevelt Trump is more of: Threaten everybody and carry a big sledge hammer.

Most of us are familiar with Teddy Roosevelt as the mythical cowboy, the “Rough Rider” charging up San Juan Hill. His actual presidency not so much. Do we remember that he won the Noble Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. We probably know more about Greek Mythology thanks to Brad Pit and Percy Jackson than we do about Teddy and how he built the Panama Canal. Teddy could easily be turned into some sort of X Man or Guardian of the Galaxy super hero. We are more aware of the Mount Olympus crowd of gods and the quests of Hercules than the reality of our own mythical heroes on Mount Rushmore.

In fact, we may even know more about the Trojan War and mythical battles between Achilles and Hector than we do about the Spanish American War. How many people know who spoke those immortal words: “You may fire when ready Gridley.” Or who Gridley even was. But here are blowing up Venezuela as if it were 1898. It seems that we are teetering on some sort of tropical disturbance with the US Navy leading the way. Is it because of drugs; is it for oil? Are these realistic reasons for flooding the region with US military asset? Based on history I would say yes. After all, we didn’t hesitate to protect United Fruit Company’s banana assets in Central America from 1891 to 1934 using the US Marines as the “big stick.”

The Trojan War started with the kidnapping of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen. Paris kidnaps Helen to Troy, this is not an elopement because Helen is a married to the King of Sparta. Before long Greeks are manning their “triremes” and rowing to Troy to bring Helen back and to bring Paris to justice. In reality it makes for a good love story: Young lover steals young girl’s heart; jilted lover seeks revenge. Or maybe a two-part episode of Law and Order Special Victims Unit.

I doubt the kidnapping Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores is going to send thousands of narco boats to Key West. However, some people claim that this whole tropical thunder campaign is revenge for Trump losing the 2020 election to Sleepy Joe Biden. After all, when all the conspiracy theories are added up how could the turtle possibly beat the hare. Did the turtle who started the race have a twin hidden along the way somewhere?

According to The Independent, “In the days after the 2020 election, Trump-connected figures floated debunked conspiracy theory that election technology firms Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic were designed to rig Venezuelan elections and then deployed to the United States to manipulate results to put Joe Biden in office.”

Like any good myth, or fable, a good deal of influencers promoting falsehoods are needed to keep Trump’s “bogus ‘stolen election’ narrative alive.” These hasty generalization are continually repeated to keep air moving through them. It’s the CPR that keeps these “long-dead conspiracy” alive and on some sort of political respirator.

“Hasty generalization is a logical fallacy that occurs when a conclusion is drawn based on insufficient or unrepresentative evidence. This type of reasoning often leads to stereotypes and oversimplifications, as it involves making broad claims based on a limited set of examples or experiences. It highlights the importance of adequate evidence and careful consideration in both deductive and inductive reasoning.”–fiveable.me

Archaeologist, going back to the 1880s continue today looking for ancient mythological sites like Troy, Mount Olympus or Crete to find a historical narrative. Team Trump, like archaeologists, has left no theory uncovered in search of a historical narrative that leads to him winning the 2020 election. But like ancient discoveries they can be credible but do not necessarily confirm the myth. The myth of Trump’s 2020 victory remains a poetic political history, now a sad saga in the face of all the harsh contrary legal rulings.

If the Ancient Greeks can create believable mythical narratives, can the same sort of fabrication be created today? For instance, the Trump Administration has created a myth that claims immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating the towns’s pets. There is probably as much truth to that claim as to the cyclops, Polyphemus, eating several of Odysseus men trapped in the cyclops’s cave on his way home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

“Myths narrate the sacred history of the acts of supernatural beings and tell how the physical and social universe came to existence through the deeds of the supernatural. In this way myths become the exemplary models for all significant human activities. By knowing myths, one knows the origin of things and hence can control and manipulate them at will. In most cases it is not enough to know the origin of myth, but it must be recited and ceremonially recounted. It has been said that by reciting myths one re-creates primordial times and emerges from the profane time to enter the “sacred” time of original events.”–continuum.fas.harvard.edu

Americans have their share of tall tales and folk lore, like George Washington throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac River. That’s quite feat when some of the best NFL quarterbacks can only throw a football 70 yards. I have been to Mount Vernon and from George’s front door I can tell you he did not chuck a silver dollar across the Potomac . At least not there. Maybe up river some place where you can walk across. All this makes me think why would he throw a silver dollar to begin with. Why not a rock? I think the silver dollars embellishes the myth. But do we hold this exaggeration against the man who supposedly could not tell a lie; and later become the Father of our country? I am not sure if the myths about George Washington are still taught in school or not but the continual reciting gives Washington supernatural powers.

The belief, or non belief of Washington throwing a silver dollar, in my mind is just not true. I would hate to call it a lie because a lie in most cases, for whatever reason, is an assertion or an attempt to mislead and deceive somebody. The silver dollar story is more of a hyperbole to exaggerate the greatness of Washington. Today, I just don’t hear too much hyperbole. I don’t hear tall tales of a giant lumberjack wrestling with a blue ox. What I hear are, and I would hate to call anybody a liar; are bold faced falsehoods, stories intended to mislead and deceive. Some simply call them lies.

Today we have left hyperbole in the literary dust. The first thing that makes today’s falsehoods confusing, is that they are laced with a collection of “alternative facts” in an attempt to make a logical political debate misleading. To paraphrase Mary Poppins: Just a spoonful of truth makes the lie go down. The second thing that makes today’s falsehoods dangerous, is they are based on a continual flow of hasty generalizations that disrupt and confuses any sort of understanding as to what just happened. As citizens we are forced to sift through partisan unsubstantiated social media claims and influencers with suspect credentials. This kind of biased news goes beyond reporting on half the truth. It is full blown bending the facts to deceive and mislead, not to mention inflame ones sense humanity: They’re eating the dogs. Are they? Is Atlas still holding up the world?

The real confusion with Trump’s Tropical Thunder is that it is mixed in with so many other unrelated hasty generalizations: His search for the Northwest Passage through Greenland; trying to change the definition of who is an American citizen–and then deporting alien scum rinsed out of the system. The nation is now on a mythical quest to Caracas, Venezuela to rescue a kidnapped 2020 election. It is also the quest based on the biggest hasty generalization of our time: That Trump is Making America Great Again, probably the biggest myth Americans have ever put on a hat.