Trust Us - Con jobs big and small

Con jobs come in all sizes and with varying degrees of intent to deceive.

A small, well-meaning con job was once directed at me when I was a letter carrier walking my route in Virginia Beach. An older man walking his dog approached me.

The dog wasn’t that big, but it was dragging its owner along like a lion pulling a dead wildebeest across the arid African savanna.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got him under control,” the outmatched man said with a straight face.

He wasn’t intentionally trying to con me and certainly meant me no harm. He may have even thought he was in charge, but he had to have known the dog was running the show.

This was the most innocent of con jobs, but I wasn’t fooled and never took my eyes off the dog as it dragged its owner past me.

Then there was a con of a different sort—intentional, but not meant to harm—much—but certainly meant to deceive.



By Martin Lewison from Forest Hills, NY, U.S.A.

The Cardiff Giant, CC BY-SA 2.0,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63648999

As many of you may have guessed, I’m talking about the famous Cardiff Giant, the petrified giant discovered on the New York farm of William C. "Stub" Newell back in 1869. The giant wasn’t an actual giant nor was it even petrified—although many who viewed it were. It was a ten-foot slab of concrete skillfully carved at the direction of his atheist cousin, George Hull, who concocted the scheme with every intent of deceiving the public—especially Christians.

People traveled from all over to the small town south of Syracuse to pay 25ȼ, and then 50ȼ to see this giant, supposedly referenced in Genesis 6:4 of the Bible. The con worked so well that a syndicate formed by David Hannum bought the rock for half a million dollars and moved the exhibit to Syracuse, where it drew such large crowds that P.T. Barnum offered a million dollars in today's money for the mammoth mortar-man.

As con jobs go, this was just the beginning. Barnum’s offer was refused, so he built his own giant out of plaster and took the show to New York City, claiming that his fake was the real thing, and the Cardiff fake was a fake.

When asked about people paying to see Barnum’s fake, Hannum was said to have exclaimed, “There’s a sucker born every minute,” which, over the years, has been falsely attributed to Barnum.

Who you gonna trust, when you can’t trust a con man?

My experience with the kindly old con man lasted but a few minutes, while the Cardiff Giant deceived folks for many months before the courts ruled both exhibits to be fakes.

Those cons were survivable, ones you can look back and laugh at, unlike the one our nation is currently grappling with. Its perpetrators may have genuinely believed the con they were purposing, but like the old man, should have known better. Furthermore, unlike with the old man, this con has serious consequences.

Of course, I am talking about the con job Trump and Republicans played on everyone in 2016. After Republicans fell victim to Trump’s con that he was a serious candidate and would make a good president, Republicans then conned their supporters by claiming they could keep him in check.

No one ever said Americans don’t appreciate a good con. Trump lost the popular vote, but enough voters in Republican districts fell for the con to give us not only a Republican president, but the Republican Congress that would keep him grounded. Once in office, this president and Congress gave us, usually by the slimmest of margins, the Supreme Court justice conservatives were demanding and the Cabinet that the president said would help him make America great again. Instead, things went sour.

The nation has watched “repeal and replace” die an agonizing death, a White House staff struggle through constant turnovers, alliances weaken, conflicts escalate, an immigration problem go unsolved, the government shutdown, and daily tweets that cause sane people to cringe.

Few Republicans, even those who criticize the president, acknowledge their role in foisting this con on the nation.

Instead, they’ve done what con men have always done. After making promises they couldn’t keep and should have known they couldn’t keep, they’re now leaving town with their tails tucked between their legs. Rather than come clean about the hoax, they are offering a host of excuses for skipping town—none of which are fooling anyone.

The victims of this swindle are also doing what victims always do. They’re standing their ground rather than admit they were taken advantage of. No one can control Trump. He can't even control himself.

Like Hannam—not Barnum—said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Sometimes, there are millions of them.