Don’t you hate reminders of what you said when you were a child?
Back in December, 2015, way back when Candidate Donald Trump first started bragging about banning Muslims from the USA, the Washington Post wrote that Ryan, McConnell denounce Trump plan to bar Muslims from the U.S:
Republicans on Capitol Hill strongly denounced a proposal from Donald Trump — their party’s frontrunner in the presidential race — for a “total and complete” ban on Muslims entering the United States.
But the two leading Congressional Republicans, House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), both stopped short of saying they would reject Trump were he to lead their party’s ticket in 2016.
“I’m going to support whoever the Republican nominee is, and I’m going to stand up for what I believe in as I do that,” Ryan said on Tuesday morning.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), without using Trump’s name, also said he would support the Republican nominee, while calling proposals to bar visitors based on religion “completely inconsistent” with American values.
So when Trump signed his Muslim Travel Ban, I’m sure they both opposed it openly. Right? It was completely inconsistent with American values, after all.
Don’t ask me why this one caught my eye in particular. There are a few hundred examples out there, from McConnell’s flip-flop on a Congressional AUMF to standards of ethical behavior. And that’s just in the past week. Under Obama, a foreign mob kills four people, and we have to pay $7M and listen to two years of House Benghazi hearings. Trump commits an unauthorized act of war against Syria, causing an American military outpost to be overrun by angry Syrian mobs — killing at least three allies — and it’s not even being discussed.
Just remember that while Trump is the worst liar (in almost every sense of ‘worst’), he isn’t the only open liar. Yes, politicians do speak creatively, and they lean, duck, and bob as they talk, but don’t let Republicans make you their stooge. It’s not even or universal. Republicans lie more than Democrats, they lie harder, and they lie about bigger things. They lie about what they want, about what they’ll do, and about what they stand for.
In a way, Trump is the perfect head of the new Republican party. He’s a compulsive liar who can’t finish a paragraph without making stuff up. He lies about everything from acts of war to jobs, to crowd sizes, to chocolate cake, for god’s sake!
Really, before now, I’d thought that nobody’s dick could really be that small. Who knew?
In the end, understanding the nature of the new Republicans will save you a lot of time. There is no point in listening to promises or justifications. Why bother? Turns out their ‘hand to god’ promises are a terrible predictor for what modern Republicans will actually do.
Think of all the free time you’ll get back.
