Democrats defer to Republican lies all the time. Not directly, but every time a GOP fear-monger calls out idiotic nonsense, Democrats trip over their tongues to declare their opposition while implicitly accepting the premise. They’ve been doing it automatically for decades. Republicans attack Democrats as ‘soft on crime,’ ‘tax and spend,’ or whatever. Democrats measure themselves against the Republican strawman arguments instead of pushing their own positions. “Democrats want secure borders, but question whether America should be putting that many kids in cages.” Brave stance there, Bubba. “Joe Biden does not support defunding the police.” Please. Do they think that if Democrats give up half their argument, the bully will stop picking on them?
Breaking News: Republicans will call every Democrat a socialist tax-and-spend metrosexual Nancy-boy anarchist appeasement monkey who hates suburbs. They’ll swear, one hand on that unopened bible, that Democrats will release MS-13 criminals in the streets and take away all your guns. (Poor gunless babies!) It doesn’t matter what Democrats say. There is no point in arguing hypothetical points with the Party of Bad Faith. Who here hasn’t noticed that Republicans are indifferent to the truth?
Republicans are liars. Yeah, Trump is breathtakingly spectacular at lying, but it’s not just him. The Republican Party gave up on honesty with Ronald Reagan, and they’ve never looked back.
When did we forget the critical importance of honesty? It matters when someone we all pay feels free to casually lie.
Why do we even listen to President Donald Trump? When Trump claims something – anything – your first reaction should be dismissive. Trump’s a notoriously compulsive liar. He lies about documented facts. Hell, Trump lies about the weather. Nathan Standing would say Trump has no honor; I’d say that honor puked at the sight of Trump’s eldritch combover. Either way, we should have learned not to trust anything out of his mouth. Trump could tell me that water was wet, and I’d still ask for two co-signers and three independent laboratory confirmations.
Why, just today, Trump announced that—
Nope, don’t care. Trump’s a liar, so we can’t trust what he says. It’s an easy decision, or it should be. When Trump lies, don’t accept it. Counterattack! Call him the liar he is.
The rest of the Republicans are no better. Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy? Just as dishonest. Would you buy a used car from Devin Nunes? Maybe you want a pre-owned gym from Jim Jordan. And the string of Republican lies during the Impeachment was chilling. You have to wonder how many Republicans support Russian help in the election.
The low point came when the Republican Nationalist Committee announced their party platform. Well, it wasn’t a platform, just one plank. Here’s their reasoning from paragraph two:
WHEREAS, The [Republican National Committee] has unanimously voted to forego the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement;
RESOLUTION REGARDING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM, adopted by the Republican National Committee on Aug. 22, 2020.
Sounds good until you think about it. They couldn’t communicate? Sure, the Republicans can be pretty old, so Zoom is probably out. I can only imagine the pain after hours of, “Is this thing on?” Still, they couldn’t call each other on the phone? Pass drafts around in the mail? How do they suggest they’ll govern if they can’t make up their minds without holding a Coronavirus super-spreader event?
Anyway, just more Republican lies. They didn’t mean it. Here’s paragraph four:
WHEREAS, The RNC, had the Platform Committee been able to convene in 2020, would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration;
Ibid
Well, look at that! A small contingent of Republican delegates formulated their platform after all. They decided that if all the Republicans had convened, that larger group would have declared their absolute loyalty to Trump. Undoubtedly and (magically) unanimously. How Soviet of them.
And like that, we’re done with the Trump Party: liars, bootlickers, fabulists, and toadies.
Democrats, don’t accept Republican lies: counterattack. When Liar Barbie spouts the latest debunked crud from her taxpayer-funded lectern, accept that she’s lying. Don’t parry or argue against nonsense. Repeating it elevates the lie, and nobody is listening after that. Respond to real stuff, but if they’re simply lying, attack into the attack. Call them liars when they lie, dishonest when they cheat, or dishonorable when they… well, breath. (Hard to find many courageously ethical Republicans these days.)
Don’t elevate Republican lies. They’d lied too often for any other assumption. No one should defer to dishonest GOP claims, especially when you know they’re lying. Don’t repeat the Republican lies. Just tell the truth.
