Lying Liars and the Party That Loves Them

Who would take Republicans seriously if they showed outrage about George Santos?

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Rep.-elect George Santos during a press conference on November 9 in Baldwin, New York. (Photo by Alejandra Villa Loarca/Newsday RM/Getty Images.)

George Santos is a liar. George Santos is a ridiculous liar. George Santos is a habitual liar. George Santos is a liar who lies about things that it doesn’t make sense to lie about, apparently just to keep in practice. George Santos lies about lying, and then he lies about having lied about lying. George Santos is such a pathetic and risible liar that QAnon kook Marjorie Taylor Greene—a hobbyist liar who turned pro a few years back—rolls her eyes about what a lying liar that lying liar is. 

Question: Is that a problem for a Republican elected official here at the last dying gasps of Anno Domini 2022? 

I don’t see how. Rep. Greene wants you to believe that shadowy Jews are using lasers to manipulate the weather. Almost every Republican who matters or who should matter—Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley—stood there looking stupid for six years (and counting) while Donald Trump told lie after lie after lie, nodding their empty little heads like a ghastly collection of particularly demented bobblehead dolls. The main themes of right-wing talk radio and cable news right now are—still—vaccine-conspiracy kookery and stolen-election kookery. Even if the contemporary Republican Party could take five minutes away from whatever the grift of the week is and work up a good head of moral-outrage steam about George Santos—the wildly successful grandson of Jewish refugees from the Holocaust who proved himself at Baruch College and NYU before rising through the ranks at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup before accumulating an impressive portfolio of investments who isn’t wildly successful or Jewish or the grandson of Holocaust refugees and who didn’t go to Baruch or NYU or work at Goldman or Citigroup and who apparently is something of a slacker but swears up and down that he positively absolutely is not a criminal so sir!—who would take them seriously? Who could take them seriously? 

Kicking George Santos out of Congress is a job for the people of Long Island, one that they can do for themselves if they should happen to discover some particle of communal self-respect. But there are things that Republicans in Congress could and should do to set an example here: They could and should refuse to give him committee assignments; they could and should vote to censure him; they could and should expel him from the Republican Party. It wouldn’t mean much coming from the motley crew of Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina characters that is the Republican leadership today or from the generally invertebrate Republican electorate for which it stands, but it would be a start. 

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  1. Pishposh

    I just can't help but wonder if Santos did this as a gag, just to see how far he could push the envelope and still get elected. I hate to say it but I kind of wonder whether there is a secret cabal of senior Republicans that have a regular gambling pool a la Squid Games betting on which politician can lie the most brazenly and still get elected. The fact that it didn't effectively come out before the election makes me wonder if someone didn't pay off the opposition to fix the bet...

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    Rdbarris

    The best thing about the Republicans is that they are really bad liars. And. arguably, really bad liars are better than really good ones, right?

    For example, a typical Democrat will happily claim that the rich pay no taxes (or at least not their "fair share," whatever that means). This is demostrably a lie using the government's own figures. Yet it is a far more plausible lie than, say, Jewish space lasers or George Santos' faked college credentials. I would also argue that it is a more significant lie in terms of its ability to affect actual policy, since it is pretty unlikely that we will take costly action to protect the country against Jewish space lasers. And the last bit that makes this type of lie worse is that it is far less likely to be fact-checked and exposed by a main-stream media that doesn't even realize that it is a lie.

    Politicians lie. It is virtually their defining characteristic. Frankly, I think that we should all prefer really bad liars like George Santos, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donnie Trump. In addition to making it much easier to spot the lie, these clumsy and incompetent liars promote a healthy realization that we should never seek salvation through politics and politicians.

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    Pfxbrennan

    If all those people were expelled, that might leave room for me.

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  4. John Mack mack

    Well, perhaps if Williamson would deign to vote....

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    Realwoodies

    What Kevin spouts here is exactly why GOP voters went for Trump. Puritanism doesn’t get you the power you need to effect change. So, the republicans have some scam artists among them. Big deal.

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    1. Very Old Grumpy Guy

      What was the positive change that Trump, himself, engineered? Not upholding the oath of office? Not committing to a peaceful transfer of power? Attempting the most incompetent coup ever? Spreading doubt on the seriousness of covid and the effectiveness of the vaccine? Taking the art of lying to Soviet/CCP type levels? Promoting the idea that elections are rigged? Presided over an increase of Debt to GDP ratio of something like 30%? Started a trade war that makes absolutely no sense and harms the people it was meant to protect the most.

      Oh yea- he owned the libs. Yipee! Does it make me a RINO that I expected a little more from my party leader?

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  6. Kungfurocketman

    Several of the comments illustrate how bad this problem has become. Yes, all politicians (and most other people as well) have lied on one occasion or another. When they do, they should be called out by their own side as well as the opposition and they should be ashamed. However, that is qualitatively different from a case like Santos or Trump, where the quantity, frequency and degree of lying is orders of magnitude beyond what we expect from a normal person having a moment of moral weakness. After four years of half the country justifying such behavior and the other half using it as an excuse for anything short of that extreme degree, too many have apparently decided we should not have any standards of behavior at all other than loyalty to the tribe, and at least some politicians now behave accordingly.

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    Mguenther

    This is tremendous. The Dispatch is like a refuge island for actual conservatives; those who had enough integrity to stand up to the ridiculous and criminal clowns who now run the GOP. And we subscribers can maintain hope because we see that values and intelligence still exist. Thank you all!

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    1. Wes.Bridges

      But where are traditional republicans to go? Where are the staunch choices? It’s well and good to pound this table—it deserves, nay, needs to be pounded—but what do we DO about it? Is it all over but the singing?

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  8. Jonnyd7606

    I was afraid that Kevin might get all warm and fuzzy when came over to The Dispatch. I am delighted to see this isn't the case. Happy new year, all.

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      Artdecade57

      Wait - he's not warm and fuzzy?!?!

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  9. Very Old Grumpy Guy

    The lies are important, but they are just a symptom of the disease. The disease is a desire to get elected to office without a platform. If you don't have a platform, you have no promises to keep, except that you have kept a satanist, child eating (I may be out of it - its grooming now?) Democrat from power. If you have made a full on commitment to nihilism, what is a few lies among team members. (Cult members?)

    Here's an idea, what if - I am just spit ballin' here - us Republicans supported other Republicans who had actual effective IDEAS. If they then got elected based on IDEAS, they could then claim a mandate to implement those IDEAS. I wonder where we might find people like that? Maybe we should look at the Republicans at the state level (Sununu is one example) who have refused to sign up for the nihilism and have fantastic election results in purple states?

    Nah, just kidding. It is more fun to think up new crazy accusations to hurl at Democrats.

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    1. Wes.Bridges

      Sununu. Sigh.

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    2. Nick.Toroveci

      How about those honest Republicans who run on IDEAS do the hard work and serve our country and not quit to write books, or run colleges and universities.

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      1. Very Old Grumpy Guy

        They are bidding their time - Sununu, Youngkin, etc.

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  10. Wkhoggatt

    You nailed it Kevin!

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