On Thursday evening, the President of the United States gave an address on national television to promote his longstanding lie that the 2020 election was stolen. I listened to his speech expecting to come out of it with a swelling rage—and I certainly should have. However, all I could muster for myself was a bitter apathy. As an American citizen, this indifference disturbs me; as a Catholic, it mortifies me.

The amount of lies the President managed to cram into 30 minutes is impressive, much to the chagrin of fact-checkers who probably had to watch the address on 0.25x speed just to get every fabricated claim down. His segue into the main topic of election security was predicated on the claim that Americans need to trust their government, which is an interesting way to reintroduce a conspiracy theory that undermines faith in the state. For a decade, Trump’s apologists have bemoaned that people who disrespect him are disrespecting the office of the Presidency. Yet, his address was a perfect illustration of him cheapening his own office by using it to cope with losing an election six years ago. Respecting the office means disapproving of those who lower it; you cannot simultaneously respect the Presidency and respect this President. 

Tragically, someone as debased as Donald Trump has the power to drag more than his own office down with him. He delegitimized the CIA and the FBI by committing them to his claims about the 2020 election. And, by claiming that election integrity today is still just as bad as it supposedly was in 2020 (logic that would make his own re-election in 2024 questionable as well, but that was conveniently unaddressed), he called into question the security of the upcoming midterm elections, undermining the legitimacy of Congress. In half an hour, he delegitimized the legislative and the executive branches as representatives of the public. 

My grievances likely read as familiar because you have been hearing and reading grievances like it for the six long years the President has stretched out this particular lie. Wouldn’t that explain my apathy? A six-year lie ought to be desensitizing. However, at the same time, six years of lying means six years of damage, including loss of life. Ashli Babbitt may be a MAGA martyr, but make no mistake: her death was not the result of “dirty cops.” She would not have been in her particularly lethal situation had she not been told by her President that her country was undergoing a tyrannical takeover. She is dead because of Donald Trump and his lethal lie. An old lie is more outrageous than a new one because the latter can be nipped in the bud before it goes too far. An old lie has already reaped immeasurable damage and its continuity furthers the harm. It has informed people to make decisions that get them into fights with their family, into estrangements with their friends, and below the ground. If the longevity of these claims is the explanation for my apathy, it is a poor excuse.

Why should I need an excuse for my apathy? Is it not a good thing that, after being baited into outrage for six years, my emotions are unaffected by the lies of a small, pathetic individual? This would be wonderful if I were a Nietzschean striving to become the overman. But I am a Catholic who believes that principles have a purpose. I am a Catholic who, when faced with the question “what is truth?” (John 18:38), knows that facts are not subjective. I know that the truth, like God, is mighty and immovable because Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh (John 1:14), and the Word is true. Thus, attacks on the truth are attacks on my savior. I should take that personally. When I am apathetic in the face of a lie, I cast aside the importance of truth. When that lie is also unpatriotic and lethal, I renounce my country and I cast aside the sanctity of life. By being more like the overman than a disciple of Christ, I inch closer to giving up my faith and succumbing to despair. Anger seeking justice is not a sin (CCC 2302), despair is (CCC 2091). Thus, my apathy disturbs me.

The President’s address in which he repeated old grievances will have likely faded into irrelevancy by the time this article has been posted. Rather than let yourself be desensitized, like I have been myself, reflect on how upsetting it is that this speech is within our bounds of normality. Hold tight to any anger that reflection may produce, and turn that anger into a vote and a voice before you turn it into misery.