A lie is a lie is a lie. And no amount of presidential posturing or "looking presidential" can change that. In the first presidential debate with The President, Mitt Romney went to a place where no honest man would ever go. Time and time again in the debate he lied to the American People. And he lied unabashedly. He lied about his tax plan. He lied about his deficit plan. And he lied about Obamacare. He lied about his plan to turn medicare into a voucher program. And he lied about outsourcing jobs to China, which he did unapologetically as head of the investment company Bain Capital.
Can Americans trust Mitt Romney? How do you trust a man who lies unabashedly? How can you trust a man who lies repeatedly? You can't. And you shouldn't. Romney admits to "pushing misinformation" in the debate. But isn't the admission that you were pushing misinformation just another way of saying "I lied?" How can the people trust a liar? And how can an honest man debate a repetitive liar? The truth is that you can't and shouldn't debate a liar. You let the liar debate himself. And you trust that most Americans are intelligent enough and honest enough to recognize lies, misinformation, and contradictions for what they are--attempts to deceive.
But another important question for those who were disappointed with The President in the debate is, how does a Black man debate a bullying white man actively engaged in repetitive fabrication of the truth without bashing and refuting every lie and without looking like "an angry black man" while doing it? The Angry Black Man is one of America's most hated "monsters" and the pundits would have had a field day bashing President Obama if he had gone after Romney in the same way Romney bullied and abused the moderator of the debate. America hates angry black men even worse than they hate "presidential looking" white men who deliberately mislead the American people. And it does so even if the black man has legitimate reasons for being angry and the white man has no legitimate reason for lying and deliberately misleading the American people.
What is the purpose of lying? Lying has only one purpose; its purpose is to deceive. Mitt Romney and the Republican party lies to deceive the American people into believing that the GOP is working in the best interest of them and their children. This in spite of the fact that for the last 12 years the Republican party has been very bad for American and for their children.
The Gop has been especially bad for the once large and powerful white middle class. Starting with Americans working in manufacturing plants, government employees, teachers, firefighters, police, and small business employees whose jobs were decimated by businesses outsourcing jobs to China and aided by policies that benefitted outsourcing--The GOP has effectively decimated the white middle class even as it pretended to protect them. The first 8 years of this 12 year run by the GOP under the Bush administration got us into this mess. In the last 3.75 years they have actively engaged in acts of sedition and obstruction bordering on treason. They have been committed to making sure America fails because they want to make sure Obama fails. And yet they claim to love and protect America. Their behavior in the last 12 years just makes that assertion another lie.
In a previous post I asked the question: "Have Right Wing Conservative Republicans Mastered the Use of the Lie?" The answer is a resounding, "Yes!" They are committed to The Lie. They seem to prefer it to the truth, essentially because the truth gets in the way of their agenda. One Republican leader is on record saying that the GOP will not let fact checkers get in the way of this campaign. And they won't.
We can only hope that Americans won't let lies and the culture of lies get in the way of truth, common sense, and doing what is best for America, those who love America, and for America's children.