Today is the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act being signed into law. And the liars are coming out of the woodwork to re-run old lies and make up new ones. And it’s not just about the ACA. Hell, these folks will lie about anything. And some lie so often that they are having a hard time keeping their story straight from one day to the next.
I guess there is something about President Obama (his race, his competence, his coolness under attack, his intelligence, his skin color) that brings out the worst behavior among so many folks supporting the modern Republican Confederate Party and our Galtian Overlords. Mention that Obama supports this or that and these folks will start lying to attack whatever Obama is for (even if they were for it five minutes ago). Their lying is so commonplace these days that they’ll make shit up about any issue supported by Democrats, workers, the middle class or the poor at the drop of a hat, but it is when you mention Obama that they are just compelled to push their fibs into the crazy zone. It is as if they are moths and he is the flame.
Earlier today, Steve Benen accurately described the trend:
THEY JUST DON’T CARE…. Perhaps the most exasperating aspect of health care debate was the incessant lying. [snip]
The Affordable Care Act had its flaws, but GOP officials simply weren’t prepared for a credible discussion of the policy. So they lied uncontrollably. They’d tell a falsehood, be shown proof that it wasn’t true, and then repeat the falsehood anyway. It was as depressing a display as anything I’ve ever seen in the American political discourse, and it’s directly responsible for the widespread public confusion about the reform law that still exists.
A year later, Republicans are still trying to kill the policy — and they’re still lying. We’re not talking about exaggerations; we’re talking about demonstrable errors of fact.
It really does not matter anymore what the issue is or who the spokesperson might be. From the budget to unions to world events to brackets for March Madness, it doesn’t matter what the latest word string is–time and time again it has become quite safe to assume that anything these weasels say is a lie. Yes, it is a lie boldly told, but it is still a lie nonetheless.
So perhaps the 23rd of March should serve a double duty. It will always be the anniversary of the Affordable Care Act and that is worthy of celebration. As one fellow accurately said, “It is a big fucking deal”. But March 23 should also be a day to remember the endless lies and the liars who keep telling them. It should be a day to call out fools in the press and elsewhere who credulously buy these lies hook, line and sinker. While these liars should be called out and shamed for the lies they tell, that by itself would matter little as these liars are beyond shame, but perhaps–if a big enough stink about the lies is raised–there might be some of the gullible folks in and out of the media who might learn not give these liars their unconditional trust.
Sure, it is a “pie in the sky” idea, but a lad can dream.
Cheers
ps: The art is by Athens, GA artist Chub (aka Chris Hubbard). I’ve had this piece for years and I’m quite fond of it. If you like this sort of thing, a catalog of his work can be found here.
stuckinred
Chris is a trip without a suitcase!
kdaug
Tin?
Mark S.
Along these lines, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) says in the WSJ that Obamacare would have killed his daughter 27 years ago. It’s not exactly clear why, but the implication is that some death panel would have balked at her heart surgery.
Dennis G.
@kdaug:
The tin in the art is from Farmington, GA and the wood from Kentucky if that helps.
Cheers
stuckinred
@kdaug: Got one hangin in the crape myrtle out front!
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Mark S.:
The irony being that if he lived in Jan Brewer’s Arizona, she for sure would not have lived, except in this case it would be because…you know, they can’t afford all these leeches on the dole, not when corporations need their fucking tax breaks!!
mr. whipple
I think we need to get both sides of the story. / the press
Roger Moore
If we had a functioning press in this country, the liars would be called out for their lies, and habitual liars would not be trusted without evidence for their claims. Too bad we don’t have a functioning press anymore.
Dennis G.
@mr. whipple:
Both sides. Yes of course. And I thought I did that. After all, I did say that they were excellent liars. Quite talented really and deserving of recognition .
Cheers
danimal
Well, that was a terribly uncivil post. Civility, of course, prioritizes being nice to liars rather than condemning the lies.
I’ll never understand. Lying is a profoundly uncivil act, yet the people calling out the lies are the one who are punished, while the liars get tv gigs, book deal, op/ed columns, etc.
Ruckus
Had an interesting discussion with a customer today. A legal immigrant from Czech Republic, been here 42 years, raised a family, can’t understand why this is not the same country as when he came here. Claimed to be hard right because all lefties are commies and he saw more than enough of that in the old country. He claimed that all blacks and mexicans are lazy welfare sucking assholes who should be thrown out. Can’t believe that he lives in a county that votes 73% democrat(there’s that 27%). He doesn’t believe that ceo’s make such a huge percentage more than their employees. It’s all the government’s fault. Which is all the left’s fault.
It was like watching faux news. Nothing I could say penetrated. I asked him question after question trying to get a little break but he was unwavering. He is thoroughly convinced the way back to his old life is the hard right.
How many more people are there like him?
How many people are there who listen to people like him and are half convinced?
How do we break down the wall that has been built up by all the lies?
MattR
Semi related, but Vikings punter Chris Kluwe has a great Twitter feed. Yahoo sports captured a couple of his gems related to the NFL labor situation. (Note: Those are two separate links)
General Stuck
Passing the largest discretionary spending bill in history, laden with short and long term liberal ideas accompanied with lots of cash, set the wingers teeth on edge. Doubly so, because Obama snuck it under their nose as a short term stimulus.
Passing HCR, and completing the New Deal circle has, is, and will continue to drive them frothy insane. It upset the status quo of pol warfare between left and right that has existed for some time, and demanded a new pair-a-dime and new narratives to fill the void. And on stage arrives the tea party for that new methodology and narritve and energy for one upping the libs.
Except those fuckers came with piss and vinegar and a two digit IQ, and wanted no prisoners taken. It has thrown the old guard a knuckleball after Obama whiffed them with the splitter.
The old game was set around predictable and consistent messaging that has worked for the GOP since The Great Society and New Deal. To talk big about the evils of liberal soshulism, and the welfare nanny state, of dead beats and minorities sucking the Porterhouse steaks off of Ma and Pa Kettles kitchen table. And all the other free stuff canards they could push out there like SS and Medicare and Medicaid. Didn’t matter that they mostly were lying about what these programs were, just that it hit the right notes that the white rubes were getting fleeced by the poor and colored dead beats. And, meanwhile, back at the bank, the wingnuts were stealing middle class cash by the truck loads, or digital loads.
Along comes Obama, first black presnit, and the wingnuts are confident they can once again put to bed any talk of universal health care, and keep beating the same dead horses they always had. Besides, they had ballooned the debt so much, no liberal weine would dare say fuck that and pass soshulist bills anyways.
BUT, those old right wing narratives didn’t actually propose to damage much most liberal social programs, because many of their idiot voters were surviving off of them, or actually more right wing voters were benefiting from the safety net than liberal ones. All you have to do is compare tax dollare paid in, and tax dollar paid out to mostly red states, as compared to wealthier blue states largely in the NE.
The ACA put the fear of gawd in them though. Not only displeasing their plutocrat benefactors, but also threatening to change the electoral dynamic with grateful voters giving credit for better health care security. Whether or not, or how much that will come to pass is yet unknown, but the wingnut knows from past experience, every day that goes by, they get a little weaker electorally, and dems get a little stronger as that law is implemented.
So they have gone crazy, the winger braintrust, and hitched their wagons to some of the craziest motherfuckers to take the national pol stage in quite some time. Sumbitches with nihilistic intent and scorched earth tactics that did well in a low turnout mid term election, but is busy alienating about every class of voter, other than a majority of whites, and they will go after them, and have, with medieval notions on how to deal with women folk in this country. Not to mention wanton union busting giving their union conservative voters the fits.
The old guard is stopping them from burning it all down, but they have a monster in their midst, and it unclear how it will shake out for the short term. Think of the Blue Dog problem dems have had, that is “tea with the queen” compared with the GOP tea tard problem, with it’s national organization and big time, big money funding/
Dems are quibbling about not getting the PO. Peanuts in comparison to the GOP problems. Which, are also our problems in a different way.
jl
@General Stuck:
“other than a majority of whites”
Looks like the reactionaries are trying to change that into a ‘minority of whites’ in the states with teabagger governors. Let us wish them luck at that project.
The Dangerman
@MattR:
I read someplace that Dude (UCLA Dude, insert 8 clap here) is ridiculously talented in everything he does (makes me sick, just less sick then if he were a USC Dude).
Amy
This is the kind of thing that earns you 30, 35% approval ratings.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/23/kasich-prison-guards/
Now, those numbers are pretty darn low – and it sure will help Obama get elected to have a very unpopular Republican Governor in Ohio, but what the heck is wrong with those 30, 35% of Ohio voters?
JPL
A day for liars…
Could you add that everyday is a day for lying for Republicans?
Omnes Omnibus
@Amy: Lucasville? As in the fucking prison with the riots, oh 15-20 years back? He wants to leave towers unattended there? Holy fuck!
Mark S.
@Amy:
You know, if you keep this quiet and just put some mannequin guards up there, the prisoners will never know the difference.
JGabriel
Dennis G. @ Top:
His sanity?
.
gex
@danimal: I take issue with your tone. I see that you have a valid point, but your tone!
MoeLarryAndJesus
@stuckinred:
This is weird, because I have one, too. Got it at the Kentuck outsider art show in Alabama.
MikeJ
@Amy: 30% is withing the margin of error of 27%.
Sly
@Amy:
30% is still within the Crazification Factor’s margin of error. You live in a country in which roughly three in ten of the voting public is just flat out, balls to the wall, inexplicably and irredeemably psychotic. Or else so inept as to be rendered functionally psychotic.
Forget better talking points or a more simplified policy platform. These folks need large and continuous doses of Thorazine, if only for the good of the Republic.
MattR
@The Dangerman: Did you see the Twitter fight he got into with Peter King after Matt Dodge had the horrible punt that Desean Jackson returned for a TD? (Here is Kluwe’s full response that King printed in his column) Unlike the snark in his fake letter to Goodell in the Yahoo article in my first post, this is very good serious discussion of why directional punting is such a tricky proposition.
PeakVT
They’d tell a falsehood, be shown proof that it wasn’t true, and then repeat the falsehood anyway.
Why tell the truth when most of the media will repeat a lie?
Redshift
That’s not lying, it’s bullshit. The difference is that a liar knows what the truth is, and deliberately misrepresents it, and BS artist doesn’t care what the truth is, only what will create the impression they want. I see no evidence that Luntz and his disciples care in the least whether any of their attacks are actually true, which is part of why they ignore the fact that they’re continuing to repeat “the 2010 Lie of the Year,” among others.
The other reason this stuff is so damaging is because it’s been going on so long that you have people like the Bushies who have grown up with it, and actually believe that their BS policies will actually work, because facts don’t matter. And even after Iraq is clearly a disaster, and their economic policies produced no growth and the greatest economic crash since the Depression, they’re still insisting that it’s someone else’s fault, and we should keep doing those things.
asiangrrlMN
YOU LIE. That’s all that ever needs to be said to a Republican. Kudos, dengre. And, happy birthday, ACA. This video from the prez is kinda cool.
stuckinred
@asiangrrlMN: Where ya bean frijole?
different church-lady
Weren’t prepared? Weren’t interested. And really, why bother be when you’re just a passenger on the rage train?
Will
These days I just say that conservatives hate America.
And I no longer use the word Republican. I use Republiklan instead.
gex
@asiangrrlMN: Reminds me of a conversation we have around the house. People will start talking about what Casey loves. Eventually, you just stop listing and end the sentence. Casey loves.
Similarly, you could point out the many ways Republicans lie. But you really only need the two words.
SIA
@ General Stuck #13. F’ing brilliant. That’s it exactly. All of it.
gex
@General Stuck: This is really good. And bookmarked. Loved it.
SIA
Speaking of liars, here’s a link to sign a petition to keep Breitbart out of Huff Post (not that I ever read the sleazy rag….but I don’t want that asshole gaining any legitimacy.)
RalfW
Here’s what Republicans in Minnesota are up to. Now remember, this is the party that claims that local control is best. That the closer you are to the taxed, the better those electeds will be at making decisions that reflect the will of the people.
So, we’re having a $5 Bn budget shortfall, naturally. Thanks T-Paw. Anyway. The MN House Republicans have devised a scheme to steal local sales tax revenue. The House wants to cut the regional bus authority by $70 million. But that makes transit riders, including 40% of downtown commuters (and the Minneapolis Chamber) mad.
So the House plans to force the metro counties to take their optional 1/4% sales tax – that was voted on county by county at real political costs to Commissioners – and divert it from capital investments (what the law authorizing hte 1/4 cent tax said) and requiring the counties to use the tax for operations.
Meanwhile, the MN Senate Republicans only want to cut 32 million of funds to metro buses. Would be better than the House, but the Senate will mandate a 50 cent fare hike. We have a Met Council that operates the buses and sets fares. Has for decades. Operates one of the top 5 transit systems in the nation, according to our own Legislative Auditor.
And has the #2 ranked farebox recovery rate.
But these Republican arseholes know better how to price bus service than people who’ve run buses for decades.
“Local control” is lie #476 in the pantheon of GOP total bullshit.
Nutella
It’s his race, his competence, his coolness under attack, his intelligence, his skin color, and the simple fact that he is a Democrat that riles them up.
kdaug
@General Stuck: Dude, seriously?
“Fire, you got the night off. Stuck’ll be filling in for ya”.
Valdivia
@General Stuck:
Amen.
James E Powell
It wasn’t just the large volume of lies and the high volume at which they were told. It was the credibility given to those lies by the corporate press/media.
Also too, neither Obama nor the Democratic leadership did any aggressive counter-attacks. They were, after all, sensitive to the feelings of the Blue Dogs and the Village Idiots.
An obscure right-wing congress-creature called Obama a liar in front of the whole country and became a hero for doing it. He should have been taken down, but every Dem was too busy being civil.
Suffern ACE
@James E Powell:
At some point, the Democratic party is going to have to hire people (it’s own hacks) to start fixing that. Obama, though, is the head of his party and has not done much to fix that. I fear though it is too late. 20 years of corporate media and no pushback when conservatives and the media denigrate our pols (or their spouses; or their children), I don’t think we’re getting that back.
debbie
@ Amy:
Even better, Rob Portman’s approval levels are 25%. Most Ohioans don’t know who he is! Now, there’s an effective legislator.
I think this latest move to require photo IDs for voting is just one more backfire from these overreaching clowns. These idiots were focusing on shutting out poor, minority types, but forgot that senior citizens (the ones who scootered over to the Tea Party rallies during HCR) don’t have photo IDs either. This could be a net loss for them.
If you’re perverse enough to gain some distance from all this, this can be really very entertaining.
Chris
@Ruckus:
If he’s an immigrant from the former Eastern Bloc, that explains the right wing bias. Same thing that’s made Cuban Americans historically trend right, and immigrants from the rest of Latin America (who suffered under American backed, right wing regimes) trend left.
I’m inclined to cut these people some slack, but only up to a point. The “blacks and Hispanics are all on welfare” shtick, especially coming from an immigrant, goes past that point: the guy’s just a regular racist asshole.
And if he’s so in love with the free market and anti welfare, I have to wonder why he moved to America rather than Honduras or some other country that spends little to nothing on social expenditures.
Chris
There’s always been that 30%, but the additional 10-30% who listen politely and attentively to what they have to say and treat it like something other than lunacy (often while dismissing the left out of hand) are the ones who empower them.
As far as I can tell, the relationship between the hard right and the moderates goes something like this:
Moderates: “Gee, folks, I really think you might want to do it this way.”
Hard Right: “If I did it that way, I WOULDN’T BE A REAL AMERICAN, WOULD I, YOU MUSLIM-LOVING COMMIE SOCIALIST AMERICA-HATING LIBERAL RINO FAGGOT!”
Moderates: “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Carry on.”
The oft-used Republican term for that crowd is “useful idiots,” I believe.
Chris
@Redshift:
Yeah, that’s one of the thing that worries me about the present – that even if we do one day start trying to fix things, the system will have been lying to itself for so long that no one’ll know where to start (not unlike the USSR).
Ecks
The dems need to go on a concerted campaign of lying themselves. They should start making pronouncements like “Every major economic crash in American history came on the watch of a Republican president” and “Republicans have passed laws allowing supervisors to sodomize their employees. They clearly hate America”. And every time one of these lies is told, Dems should hold up their left hand or something (just keep repeating the gesture). The press will print most of these lies outright and unquestioningly for quite some time. Eventually, when the lies get enormous enough, someone might call them on it. And only when that builds and enough people call them on it, the dems reveal the ploy.
They say “yeah, each time we lied we made this gesture. Here are an equally long list of republican lies, note they made NO gesture. We have shown here how shoddy pres reporting is. You reported our mock lies every bit as much as their real ones. What are you going to do about it press?”