My title includes the two questions I want to ask voters in swing states.
Nearly all of us have had, at one time or another, a malicious rumor spread about us. It is not a pleasant experience. Not only does it hurt, it also makes us angry. Defending oneself against an unfounded accusation can be one of the most frustrating situations we experience as humans.
In a just world, the lie is debunked, the perpetrator of the lie is outed and the liar is shamed and shunned.
The Republicans and their deep-pocket allies have hung their hats on BIG LIES this campaign:
- The "Obama ended welfare-to-work rules" lie.
- The "Obama cut $700 billion from Medicare to fund Obamacare" lie.
- Paul Ryan's oft-repeated and blatant lie about Obama being responsible for the GM plant closing in Janesville.
As I noted in a diary I posted last Friday:
We have to accept the fact that Romney and the conservative Super PACS are going to lie -- enormously and continuously -- from now through election day, and that they have the money -- way more than we do -- to carry out this assault on the truth. Lying is their only path to victory with a ticket headed by the unlikeable Mitt Romney.
So, that said, how do we fight it? How does the Obama braintrust fight it? How do liberal Super PACs fight it? As Josh Marshall noted yesterday, the phony welfare ads may be having an effect in swing states where conservative spending is the highest.
Can the conservatives lie their way to victory in November? They have the money to pound their lies into swing states at rates that our side just can't match.
We now have had any number of non-partisan sources repeatedly debunk the GOP's BIG LIES, but as we've seen at the GOP convention, the liars will repeat the lies, regardless.
It's frustrating, but it is also repugnant to most folks who have had the experience outlined above.
So we should be asking voters in swing states these two questions. Then we should follow up with the facts from every debunking source we can track. And, finally, we should ask this question:
"What kind of person continues to repeat a lie about another person, even after it has been clearly pointed out to the perpetrator that he or she is lying? What kind of person does that?"
I think we know what kind of person does that. And what kind of people do that. We need to point these people out to voters in swing states. And we need to point out their BIG LIES. Repeatedly. Until it is clear who they are and what they're all about.