OK… so the title is a badly worded steal from Queen Gertrude’s line in Hamlet.  I won’t deny that in the least.

But that line has long since come into our common usage as a way to indicated doubt of someone’s sincerity, especially regarding the truth of a strong denial.  We use this quote when someone is strongly indicating one thing, when it appears that the opposite is actually true.  It’s like a type of psychological projection, where a person – often unconsciously, but sometimes with full knowledge of their actions – implies an action, trait, or ideology in someone else when in reality that action or ideology is theirs.

Like what’s coming out now in the 2020 election probe in Georgia. Trump and his allies have long been “projecting” the the election was stolen (it wasn’t) and that there was widespread election fraud (again, not true) and that’s why he couldn’t get anyone in Georgia to “find those 11,780 votes” he so desperately wanted to find.  Today the news comes out that while Republicans were screaming about election fraud and stealing votes on the part of others, it was THEIR OWN PEOPLE who were recorded entering the Coffee County Elections Office where it’s alleged they copied software and data from voting equipment.  (Which actually IS illegal; the very same thing these Republicans keep protesting too much that everyone BUT they are doing.)

Republicans keep screaming about voter fraud and election tampering – but this image from the Coffee County, GA Elections Office shows REPUBLICAN operatives gaining unauthorized access to voting equipment and data.

You can’t make this crap up folks.  Truth really is stranger than fiction. So the next time Trump, Lindsey Graham, or any other GOP talking head starts screaming about voter fraud or “stolen elections?”  Remember that line from Hamlet.  Most likely they will be “doth protesting far too much.”  (When liars always lie, what do you do when they then say that everyone else except them is lying and they are telling the truth?)

Mark Silk of Religion News outlines this more in his article, “The Christian right’s Faustian bargain – It goes back 42 years.”

It’s well worth your time to read Silk’s article.  He references and contrasts an opinion piece by Michael Gerson of the Washington Post entitled “Trump should fill Christians with rage.  How come he doesn’t?”  (Fair warning here:  this article is behind the WaPo’s paywall that may or may not allow you to read it, if you’ve read anything else from their website recently.)