Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them

As the damage to this countries political institutions comes fast and heavy, we should step back a moment to consider that perhaps the single greatest damage Trump is doing to our institutions is normalizing brazen, baldface lying.

Matthew Yglesias has a pretty thorough piece where he runs through the various lies that the GOP has embraced to sell the American Shitburger Act of 2017.  The important point is that these are not just Trump's lies.  I think we have become somewhat numb to the complete disregard for the truth that Trump has demonstrated throughout his life.  What is disturbing is that the GOP has no embraced this tactic of simply lying their asses off whenever it suits them.

I mean, why not?  As Trump observed, he could shoot a man in the face on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support.  That pretty much seems to go for the entire GOP.  Odious ambulatory cream cheese sculpture, Mitch McConnell, came forward and basically said, "Hey, no biggee.  I'm sure the House Oversight Committee is totally on this."  Anyone even half paying attention knows that there is almost no circumstance that one can reasonably imagine that would cause the GOP to break with Trump.  He's going to let them deregulate business, strip health care from the poor, appoint reactionary judges and pass tax cuts for the super rich.

What's not to like?  And besides, what's a little treason and obstruction of justice among friends.

For whatever reason the Right has proven much more vulnerable to the demonstrably false statements coming from Fox and Friends, which is to say Fox and the GOP.  There are people on the Left who will fall for SPIN, but spin is different from lies.

I had a discussion with someone over the "rape is a preexisting condition" story.  That's spin.  It's not that you won't be treated for rape.  But it is true that if you have psychological issues or a persistent STD from that rape, that IS a preexisting condition.  That's spin, and spin is an old political form of speech.

What we have here is new and profoundly disturbing.  Without a common frame of reference, it is literally impossible to see how we can survive as a democratic nation.

It's THAT bad.