{"id":50269,"date":"2020-11-23T09:31:38","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T13:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=50269"},"modified":"2020-11-25T09:40:42","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T13:40:42","slug":"politicians-lies-no-longer-matter-in-a-post-truth-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2020\/11\/politicians-lies-no-longer-matter-in-a-post-truth-world.html","title":{"rendered":"Politicians’ Lies No Longer Matter in a Post-Truth World"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is Texas Senator Ted Cruz, on July 22nd<\/a>:<\/p>\n

If it ends up that Biden wins in November\u2014I\u00a0hope he doesn\u2019t, I don\u2019t think he will\u2014but\u00a0if he does, I guarantee you\u00a0the week after the election, suddenly all those Democratic governors, all of those Democratic mayors will say, \u2018Everything is magically better, go back to work, go back to school.\u2019 Suddenly the problems are solved. You won\u2019t to have to wait for Biden to be sworn in.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can even watch the video of Cruz saying this, here<\/a>. And it wasn\u2019t just Cruz! Many many many<\/em> Republicans\u2014including Trump himself!\u2014claimed in the face of all<\/em> evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic would end and disappear the day after the election.<\/p>\n

Not a single person should vote for Ted Cruz, or trust his judgement, ever again. When you\u2019re\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>wrong\u2014and that wrong about something experts could and did tell you you were wrong about\u2014there should be consequences, and those consequences should<\/em> include a complete and total<\/em> loss of credibility and public trust.<\/p>\n

Consider the sequence of events: Republicans claimed that the pandemic and\/or pandemic restrictions were a Democratic plot to defeat Trump at the ballot box, and that the pandemic and\/or pandemic restrictions would end the day Biden won. The election came, Biden won, and the pandemic did not\u00a0<\/em>end and\u00a0Democratic governors and mayors did\u00a0not\u00a0<\/em>remove pandemic restrictions\u2014instead, the pandemic began accelerating, as scientists had long said it would in the fall,<\/em> and even many\u00a0Republican<\/em> governors and mayors started implementing pandemic restrictions they had previously eschewed.<\/p>\n

This is a colossal failure on the part of politicians like Cruz to understand the basic nature of reality. Cruz should be all over the media right now saying not just that he was wrong about the pandemic, but also that he has fundamentally misjudged the Democrats<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Think about it: Cruz was more willing to believe that Democrats were consciously and intentionally destroying the economy in order to unseat a Republican president than he was to believe that Democrats were following scientific and epidemiological guidance and trying to protect people in their states from a deadly new virus.<\/p>\n

That Cruz could make such egregious misjudgments not only about the science of a new disease that is killing his constituents but also about the motivations and actions of his primary political opponents<\/em> ought to be career ending.<\/p>\n

And yet it won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

This moment\u00a0ought\u00a0<\/em>to be a reality check for ordinary Republican voters, the moment when they say \u201cwait a minute, this doesn\u2019t make sense, I feel like I was lied to.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it won\u2019t be.<\/p>\n

You see, ordinary Republican voters are currently very busy believing the bald-faced lies being spread by individuals like Trump and Cruz about the integrity of our election.<\/p>\n

Reality no longer matters. Facts no longer matter. Being wrong\u2014obviously, clearly, inescapably<\/em> wrong\u2014no longer has consequences.<\/p>\n

Ordinary Republican voters are usually quick to complain about politicians\u2014remember, Trump was elected partly because he wasn\u2019t a politician\u2014but what does it mean when lies\u2014overt, easily checkable lies<\/em>\u2014no longer have any consequences at all? What does it mean when a politician can lie, and lie, and lie, and voters don\u2019t even care?<\/p>\n

What does it mean to live in a world where truth does not matter? We are only just learning. Though perhaps we have<\/em> been learning, for some time. Truth didn\u2019t matter when Bush invaded Iraq. Truth didn\u2019t matter when Republicans claimed Obamacare included \u201cdeath panels.\u201d Truth didn\u2019t matter during Iran-Contra, either.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible the last time truth mattered was in the 1970s, when Republicans pushed Nixon to resign when faced with incontrovertible evidence regarding his actions. Still, regardless of any particular moment or exact path, I am afraid of what comes next in a world when truth and fact have been exchanged for rank populist demagoguery.<\/p>\n

I have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not a single person should vote for Ted Cruz, or trust his judgement, ever again. When you’re\u00a0that\u00a0wrong—and that wrong about something experts could and did tell you you were wrong about—there should be consequences, and those consequences should include a complete and total loss of credibility and public trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":50273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[777,1083],"class_list":["post-50269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-channel-politics-blue","tag-covid-19"],"yoast_head":"\nPoliticians' Lies No Longer Matter in a Post-Truth World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not a single person should vote for Ted Cruz, or trust his judgement, ever again. 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