Comment of the Day: “It ceased to matter long ago whether Trump’s claims bore any resemblance to the truth. At least a third of Americans can reliably be counted on to believe…”

It ceased to matter long ago whether Trump’s claims bore any resemblance to the truth. At least a third of Americans can reliably be counted on to believe some version of Trump’s whoppers and Trump well knows this. Pointing out that the President is either lying or has no idea what he’s talking about has, in consequence, come to mean exactly nothing. That alone spells the end of democracy. If facts don’t matter, if reason doesn’t count, if truth telling and accountability are out the window, no deliberation, no debate, no evaluation of candidates and policies is possible. That was exactly Trump’s goal. The first and only important victim in tyranny, as the ancient Greeks pointed out, is truth. And so we have escalating tariffs against Canada (with whom the US has a sizeable trade surplus) and ramped up policing and incarceration (when crime rates have never been so low) and all the rest of the assaults on common sense and decency (making cosy with thugs, dictators, gangsters and pimps).

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com and alefolsom)