It’s interesting to me that we don’t see corollaries on the left of a lot of the stuff that we see on the right. I’m talking about from elected officials, not some-dudes on the internet. Why, for example, don’t we see relatively obscure backbenchers in the House calling for investigations of Romney staffers based on six-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon ties to Islamic jihadists? Why aren’t we seeing extreme liberals from…I don’t know…Vermont, questioning whether Mormonism is a cult and denying that Romney is a Christian? Why are there no elected Dems pointing out that Romney’s ancestors fled from two countries under duress, and that they practiced polygamy? Why has no one concocted a conspiracy theory that Romney was really born on the RMS Queen Elizabeth in international waters and, thus, is not a natural born citizen who is eligible for the office of the presidency? And why have no congressmen or senators expressed some concern that Romney hasn’t disproven that theory? Why hasn’t some official Obama surrogate questioned whether Romney knows how to be an American?
Most of these things are absurd or grossly exaggerated, but some of them are true or at least open for debate. I don’t think it’s an unwillingness to play hardball that explains why the Democrats won’t mirror these Republican tactics. I think people on the left genuinely think it’s wrong to attack someone’s religious beliefs or espouse ridiculous conspiracy theories or arouse fears on completely baseless nonsense or to treat the truth as something that is worthless. I think they also don’t like to look stupid in front of their peers.
For some reason, there is nothing in the typical Republican officeholder’s brain that tells them there’s an unacceptable downside to obliterating the truth in the pursuit of power. I think it is because lying is a critical and indispensable ingredient in their political success.
