Reality Check for Democrats: Republicans Sell Lies Better Than You Tell the Truth

In the days after every election, I avoid the political media as much as possible. During this time all these “experts” will go back and forth trying to overcomplicate the “whys and why nots” of what happened, just like they have this election. Even though the truth is glaringly obvious: Republicans sell lies better than Democrats tell the truth. 

All I’ve heard since Tuesday night is how “serious” Mitch McConnell is about working with the president to end the gridlock in Congress.

Really? McConnell is “eager” to end our perpetual gridlock in Congress and work with the president? The man who once famously declared, with a smile on his face no less:

“Our [Republicans] top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”

That is the individual Republicans are “promising” will work with the president to end congressional gridlock?

Just think about that for a moment. For someone to honestly believe that Republicans will now work with the president, since the Senate will soon be controlled by the GOP, what they’re actually saying is that they believe that it’s Democrats in the Senate who didn’t want to work with the president – while the Republicans did. And that’s absurd.

The Senate, with Republicans in the minority and McConnell serving as Senate Minority Leader, has blocked more of Obama’s nominees than all other presidents combined. Though their obstruction pales in comparison to the ridiculousness that’s gone on in the House of Representatives. Then there was always the debt ceiling which Republicans never minded raising during Bush’s presidency (7 times in 8 years) or the fact that Ronald Reagan raised the debt ceiling 19 times in his eight years. You know him, the “conservative legend.” Yet once President Obama needed it done, then suddenly it was  a tool used to try to blackmail the president to sabotage his presidency a sign of a president who was completely out of control with his spending.

But nonetheless, millions of Americans came out this election and overwhelmingly voted for Republicans. They believed their outrageous lie that they’ve done their best to work with the president but he simply won’t work with them.

Republicans sold this lie over and over and over. Hell, they’re still selling it, and they will for the next two years. The way they “negotiate” is by offering the president the very things he tells them are non-starters for negotiations – then blame him for “not compromising.”

GOP obstruction has been so bad that even when Republicans and Democrats in the Senate came together to pass legislation (such as immigration reform) it rarely stood a chance in the House. Heck, in the case of immigration reform, Speaker of the House John Boehner wouldn’t even let it come up for a vote. But apparently that’s Obama’s fault.

Then there’s “Obamacare.” When you list everything that the law does (ends discrimination against pre-existing conditions, more comprehensive coverage, subsidies for lower-income Americans, children able to stay on their parent’s insurance longer, Medicaid expansion) most Americans overwhelmingly approve of all of that. That is, until you call it “Obamacare.” Then suddenly it’s “evil socialism that has to go.”

See, Republicans have spent so much time lying about the law and conditioning people to “reject Obamacare” that many Americans aren’t even able to think for themselves anymore. It’s like Pavlov’s dog that salivated upon hearing a bell. When these anti-Obama people hear the term “Obamacare” their brains shut down and they just repeat back whatever it is they’ve been told. Even if they’re someone who’s benefitting from the law.

Kentucky is a great example of this idiocy. I kid you not, during one of McConnell’s debates he literally said that he wanted to keep Kentucky’s health care marketplace, Kynect - but fully repeal the law nationally. Without “Obamacare” there is no Kynect. And why, if the law is so terrible, would you want to keep it in your state? Oh, I know why, because it’s been successful. Same goes in Arkansas, a state that saw their uninsured rate drop by half, that just elected a new Senator who wants to repeal the law.

And through all these years of talking poorly about the Affordable Care Act, and how this should be a state issue, has a single Republican-controlled state passed any kind of health care reform to counter the ACA?

Of course not. So, if it’s a state issue, why aren’t states trying to fix our broken health care system? Right now millions of Texans don’t have health insurance. Has the Republican-controlled state legislature done anything about that? Of course not. And they won’t.

But what did Republicans run on this election, besides “we’re not Obama”? What clear-cut stances did they take?

Sure, I’ve heard them say a lot of trigger words like “economy,” “jobs,” “border security” and “terrorism” – but I don’t recall many of them actually laying out their plan for any of it.

Let’s take a look at the “values” Republicans represent. They:

• Want a ban on same-sex marriage. 
• Want to ban all abortions (many are even against abortions for rape victims). 
• Are against the minimum wage. 
• Are anti-immigration reform. 
• Are against laws to protect equal pay for women. 
• Want religion interjected into every facet of our lives. 
• Want to gut (and eventually get rid of) Social Security and Medicare. 
• Don’t believe in climate change. Heck, many of them don’t even believe in science period. 
• Oppose sensible gun regulations. 
• Support the right for businesses to discriminate against gays.

Yes, they just gained more power in Congress – because the GOP sells lies better than Democrats tell the truth.

All I’ve heard lately is how “unpopular” President Obama is and how he’s been a failure. Though I’ve still yet to have anyone tell me how creating over 10 million jobs, having an unemployment rate below 6%, presiding over record stock levels and cutting $1 trillion from our deficit equates to “being a failure.”

If he were a Republican they’d be calling him a legend – yet this is the president Democrats ran away from.

Democrats should have been everywhere, not just talking about Obama’s successes (you know, the truth), but endlessly bragging about them. Instead, by avoiding the president, they actually helped validate and sell Republican lies. It was absolutely pathetic.

It’s their lies vs. our truth. Republicans aren’t winning the ideological battle, they’re winning the marketing battle. They’re masters at selling lies as truth while Democrats fled from success because it was apparently too difficult, or they were too cowardly, to fight for it.

And it’s about damn time we put a stop to that.