re: #55 Blind Frog Belly White

I think IOKIYAR has been exacerbated by Trump. Yesterday, Cornyn said of the whole secret writing of the Senate bill, to be voted on a week after the reveal, “I can’t imagine a more transparent process.”

This is PLAINLY a bald faced lie, the kind that a couple years ago, he might have been too cautious to try. But Trump proved that Republicans literally DO NOT CARE about honesty, or truth, or reality. And as a result, you see Republicans saying their process was no more secretive than the ACA process, because at the time the ACA was being developed, they CLAIMED it was all a secret process they had no input on.

This is dangerous, because people who have no scruples or shame (I’m looking at YOU, Mitch McConnell) are finding that there’s no price to be paid for any transgression. They can literally do whatever they want and get away with it. And for a party that has lacked real principles for a long time, this is a very dangerous development. They basically become the kid in the candy store.

The GOP has been experimenting with greater and greater levels of cynicism for awhile: what can they get away with, how much justification and misdirection are required?

At the same time, there’s been a cultural drive to eliminate skepticism and present partisan politics as an existential, even spiritual conflict, in which right and wrong is about affiliation. The base has become more and more tolerant, since the only value system they really have is “on side, it’s probably okay” versus “not like us, always guilty.”

At this point, procedural kabuki isn’t necessary. You can lie or not answer, and expect that while you might not be believed by everyone, there’s a considerable number of people that will believe you’re still better than the liberals.