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Here’s what we’re up against. Republicans are closing out their election messaging with lies, more lies, and yes, more lies. Whether it’s Donald Trump lying about the national security threat of crying and exhausted families 1,000 miles away looking for asylum, or whether it’s Republican candidates feeling the heat for their callous vote to repeal the ACA (and now falsely claiming they’re the part of protecting pre-existing condition coverage), the GOP’s closing argument is completely devoid of reality. We begin today’s roundup with Catherine Rampell at The Washington Post and her take on the GOP’s assault on the truth:
Republicans’ closing argument: Be afraid, be very afraid.
The GOP has had unified control of government for nearly two years now. Yet, somehow, Republicans’ promised return to morning in America, that end of “American carnage,” still hasn’t arrived, according to both their own standard-bearer and their terrifying campaign ads. [...]
He needs the barbarians to be at the gates; the “deep state” undermining his agenda; the “enemy of the people” victimizing him and his Forgotten Men. If he ever definitively declares victory over the forces he has told his loyal foot soldiers to fear, the war is over, and they’ll lay down their arms.
Trump’s core voters are political doomsday preppers; he needs them to keep prepping.
Here’s Paul Krugman’s take at The New York Times:
What are Republicans lying about? As I said, almost everything. But there are two big themes. They lie about their agenda, pretending that their policies would help the middle and working classes when they would, in fact, do the opposite. And they lie about the problems America faces, hyping an imaginary threat from scary dark-skinned people and, increasingly, attributing that threat to Jewish conspirators.
Both classes of lie are rooted in the real G.O.P. agenda.