Most Americans live in a state of denial.  We have always believed, or at least wanted to believe, that like a good daddy, our president and his confederates care about us and about America, have our best interests at heart, want to improve our lives and protect us.

This brings us to the Biden administration.  Every decision they have made since Day One has harmed our country — its economic welfare, social cohesion, physical and mental health, morale, international relations, and longstanding cultural mores.  But what did critics say about Biden's termination of a major gas pipeline before we had a sustainable energy alternative?  What do they say as he vaporizes our southern border, exposing our country to millions of unvetted refugees?  What do they say when his administration, abandoning diplomacy, deliberately provokes Russia to the brink of World War III by shipping more weapons to Ukraine and inviting Finland, Russia's neighbor, to join NATO?  They accuse Biden of dementia, ineptitude, stupidity, poor judgment, and financial corruption.  Although these accusations are accurate, they miss the most important point.  All those who miss this point enable the demolition of our society to continue.

What few pundits dare to point out is that all the Biden's administration's missteps trend in the same direction — toward destruction of our society.  If ineptitude was the culprit, we would expect a randomness in the administration's decisions and consequences — some might fortuitously make good public policy, others terrible policy, and others in between.  So incompetence is an inadequate explanation.  What we find difficult to face is that our government intends us harm in order to accrue power and usher in a globalist takeover of the remnants of our society.  It intends to destroy us, if not through nuclear war, then though economic privation, starvation, and cultural upheaval.  It does not give a damn about us.  It despises us.  It may even wish to kill us.   It is not dumb but malevolent.  It is evil.  (I include in this characterization not only federal officials but many mayors and governors — Democrats mainly, but also fellow-traveling Republicans.)

Denial is the most primitive psychological defense.  Through it we refuse to accept reality — as when a four-year old covers his ears, shuts his eyes, and screams nonsense syllables to drown out his older brother's taunts.  But evil abides even when we refuse to see or hear it.  We deny our officials' malevolence the way family members deny that Daddy sexually abuses six-year old Molly: surely, he couldn't have done that; why, only yesterday, he took us to a ballgame and bought us Cracker Jacks.  To acknowledge that the authority most expected to protect us wishes us harm threatens our sense of reality, destroys our trust in the world.  So we create a fake reality to comfort ourselves, maintain our sanity.

As the character Verbal Kint says in the film The Usual Suspects, "the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."  What he might have added is that the Devil operates best if we deny his existence.  We must uncover our ears and open our eyes and face reality.  Our leaders intend to destroy us if we let them get away with it.

Steven Goldsmith, M.D. is a Board-certified psychiatrist in Los Angeles and author of The Healing Paradox.

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