Paul Ryan, who teamed up with Akin in the House to sponsor harsh anti-abortion bills, may look young and hip and new generation, with his iPod full of heavy metal jams and his cute kids. But he’s just another fresh face on a Taliban creed, the ever-more antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.
- Maureen Dowd
I suppose I should begin by stating what should be obvious. I get no great joy out of calling Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan liars. I derive no pleasure from pointing out that the GOP Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates are united by their epic, cold-blooded mendacity. That said, when it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck….
I’ve focused on Mitt Romney’s (evidently acrimonious) divorce from the truth for quite some time. Romney’s prevarications have grown so prodigious and plentiful that he’ll even lie about being a person of integrity. His disregard for the truth and his absence of integrity are indicative of a man dedicated above all else to his own ambition and lust for power. What amazes me is that so much of the Mainstream Media is giving him a free pass. I can’t help but wonder if the same “courtesy” would be extended to Barack Obama if he was a criminally dishonest as Mitt Romney. Somehow I doubt it.
Perhaps even more disturbing is Romney’s choice for a running mate. Paul Ryan is every bit the liar and dissembler that Mitt Romney is. Together, the GOP ticket represents what can only charitably be called the first “post-truth” Presidential campaign. The “Big Lie” has become more than just a propaganda technique pioneered by Josef Goebbels; it’s become the official philosophy and strategy of the Republican Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates. Ryan has proven to be the perfect choice- a man whose mendacity and willingness to ignore facts is exceeded only by his lack of integrity. Fact-checking is ridiculed as a partisan effort, as if the truth is red or blue…and the American Sheeple seem not to care.
How divorced from the truth is Paul Ryan? In discussing Ryan’s unveiling at last week’s Republican National Convention, Jonathan Cohn observed that Ryan’s preaching to the choir might have been the “most dishonest convention speech” he’d ever witnessed.
Dan Amira described Ryan’s speech as “appallingly disingenuous and shamelessly hypocritical,” before adding what’s quite possibly the best description of Ryan’s mendacity I’ve read anywhere:
Most of the millions of people who watched the speech on television tonight do not read fact-checks or obsessively consume news 15 hours a day, and will never know how much Ryan’s case against Obama relied on lies and deception. Ryan’s pants are on fire, but all America saw was a barn-burner.
The problem- for all of us, Republican and Democrat- is that Paul Ryan’s career and political prospects are built on a foundation made out of the soft sand of lies. Whether it’s his disingenuous disavowal of Ayn Rand, whom he’s claimed for years as the reason he got into public service, or his willingness to condemn President Obama for the closing of a GM plant that occurred BEFORE he was even in office, Ryan is a liar. He’s built a reputation as a policy wonk willing to advocate for making “tough choices”, but his numbers don’t add up. His policy positions overwhelmingly benefit the 1% at the expense of the poor, the ill, the middle class, and the elderly. Paul Ryan is not the “revolutionary” Republican propaganda would have us believe. He’s dishonest, disingenuous, and devoid of shame or remorse. It’s no stretch to call Ryan a sociopath…and Republicans consider him a hero.
Think about what that means for America….
Ryan lied uncontrollably, but that’s not terribly important. It undermines our democracy and the basic norms of the American political system, but no one seems to care anymore. Ryan thinks we’re idiots, but his cynicism matters less than the electoral implications.
The United States is better than Paul Ryan’s dishonesty. It has to be. Our future depends on it.
It does…but the Mainstream Media is giving Ryan a free pass, as if dishonesty and mendacity are de riguer and certainly nothing out of the ordinary. Voltaire’s words keep running through my head: “He who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
And you wonder why I fear for the future of my country….
