The Truth Shall Set You Free

There is only one thing that I have asked of Democrats, as the years and administrations pass by, and it is apparently far too much to ask.  It is simply to tell the truth to the American people. 

The Republican party, of course, has not a shred of instance in the truth.  Today's case in point and poster child for Republican dishonesty:

"WASHINGTON -- A pro-life, family-values congressman who worked as a doctor before winning election as a Tea Party-backed Republican had an affair with a patient and later pressured her to get an abortion, according to a phone call transcript obtained by The Huffington Post.

The congressman, Rep. Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, was trying to save his marriage at the time, according to his remarks on the call, made in September of 2000. And, according to three independent sources familiar with the call and the recording, he made the tape himself."

So, here is the truth that I am talking about:  The leaders of the Republican party do not care a damn about the welfare of this country.  They don't care about a balanced budget, the welfare of our troops, American jobs, the destruction of all of us through climate change, a fair voting system, or any other damned thing they claim to champion, let alone such jackass issues as abortion or teaching idiotic myths in place of science in the public schools.  And they are willing to say anything that pops into their heads at the moment to get what they want. 

For Republicans, debate and discussion are not ways to arrive at the truth, or at a common consensus.  They are simply one more way to manipulate people into giving them what they want.  And what they want is nothing more nor less than diverting more and more of our national wealth and power into the hands of the couple of thousand richest people in the world, people like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson, who will personally pay to keep Republicans in power, as long as their only concern is making these few people richer and richer, at the expense of everyone else.

Adopting this agenda involves utterly turning your back on the truth.  It involves, at its very core, a willingness to deceive the entire rest of the American population about what they are really up to.  And once you have made your peace with dishonesty of that magnitude, a few thousand lesser lies along the way mean nothing.

This fact is the essential truth of American politics today.  Without acknowledging it, Obama can never make real progress against our greatest enemy- the forces of greed and hatred that threaten to destroy us, not in some distant future, but in the next few years, if Romney is elected President.

Well, here lies the utter failure of Obama in the debate the other night.  He preposterously treated Mitt as a fair debate partner, instead of the serial liar that he has always been, willing to say anything to anyone to get what he wants, like any good Republican. 

The really disturbing thing about this is that Obama did not do this out of diffidence or politeness, or an attempt to appear Presidential.  As far as I can tell, after four years of being savaged and betrayed by Republican, he still cannot give up the massive delusion that they are legitimate negotiating partners, who care about the welfare of all of us, instead of what they really are- rapacious predators with no more concern for their victims than a tiger or a shark, utterly sociopathic criminals who know the damage they are doing, and just don't care.

Yet, Obama reserves for himself the right to go on living in his fantasy world, in his own way as out of touch with reality as the teabaggers and birthers who hate him so much.

Continuing to put your faith in a fantasy is far worse than having a bad night on national TV.  With the latter, we can expect some adjustment next time; with the former, we can expect nothing except the destruction of any hope of avoiding a Presidency that will cause the destruction of this country.

It is long past time to for Democrats to point out the seditious, treasonous program of the Republican party.  It is long past time for Democrats to begin calling out Republican lies, big and small.  If Democrats had stood up to the Republican lie machine (and this includes major parts of the "mainstream press,") back in the days of Reagan, we would not be in the situation we are today.  But we are here, and as far as speaking the truth is concerned, better late than never.  We all need to demand this of our leaders- after all, the truth is the least we deserve.