ARTICLE AD BOX
The Republican party, now composed almost exclusively of Trump-addled know-nothings, has been busy handing Democrats all the talking points they can use for next year’s election. From such talking points we can expect to see gut-punching ads that star all your favorite Republicans, in all their splendid fraudulence.
The idea is to hang them with their own words. Make them own the lies they tell on camera. Let those lies be the fuel for the attack ads against them. Treat the whole GOP as a target-rich environment, where everywhere you look there’s another liar. Feel free to target them without mercy.
The ability to lie, shamelessly and constantly, is a core skill of Republican politicians. These bought-and-paid-for toadies have signed up for any posturing they’re called on to do, the more theatrical the better. They’re trained to lie effortlessly, and to maintain their lies, no matter who calls them on it, or how sharply it contradicts the lies they told the day before. They’re impervious both to irony and embarrassment.
Would I rather the election be about anything but GOP chicanery? Would I rather it be about the economy, or climate change, or Ukraine, or gun control, or any of several dozen pressing issues Republicans refuse to address? Of course, I would.
But we’re in strange times, with our democratic system on the line once again, and we’ll need to figure out which issues will have the most traction come Election Day. There is no shortage of issues to choose from, but for me, these are the ones that scream the loudest: