The core value for a republican is that power is the means to and goal of a good life. Their core belief is that Power the manifestation of god. Power is their god and goal. It both protects and serves them. It is also their birthright and entitlement. Happiness comes from power; accumulating and then asserting that power. When power is the goal any means is justified to accomplish the end. Similarly, when power is your god any action is justified in serving this god.
So, Lying is not a necessary evil but a legitimate tool to achieve this ‘sacred goal’. If the truth doesn’t work then a lie that does is just as good. Republicans actively steal, cheat and lie, to win/acquire power as well as encouraging and supporting others to do so on their behalf (eg Russia). And so it is absolutely natural for Republicans to believe others will lie to achieve their own goals.
That is why they interpret the Dr Ford’s account as a lie. The Democrats, the media and any others who challenge the Republicans are assumed to be lying too. Any threat to the Republicans exercise of power is dishonest and illegitimate. The thinking is “If I would willingly lie, they they would too”.
A particularly attractive feature of lying for the republicans is its asymmetric nature. Democrats are loath to do likewise. The value system for the average democrat (and most humans) is to abhor such a practice. they know that democrats believe that the truth is important and lying is immoral or wrong (in the sense it undermines harmony in society). So to label someone as a liar is to claim they are immoral (a more forceful claim than merely acting immorally). And the republicans are quick to identify even a hint of a lie from a Democrat who would then feel embarrassed if caught out whilst a republican would feel emboldened and self-righteous. The different value systems are clear.
Under the skin of a Republican is a fundamentalist. Just as with religious extremists, Republicans hold deeply intolerant beliefs based on the the primacy and purity of their world view. No doubt, no humility. In the heart of a fundamentalist republican is the belief it is illegitimate to challenge their views and their exercise of power and if someone does, then the republicans are permitted to use any and all means including lying and cheating to defeat those who defy them.
Democrats (and most people living in the USA and around the world) do not understand that Republicans hold a value system that is simply incompatible with their own — just as with other dictatorships around the world and down through history — only the Republicans hide their views behind innocous words like freedom, courage and right to work).
Democrats assume that the tenents of democracy are held by all who live in the USA. And that the difference is merely one of degree or emphasis — how much economic, social and policitical freedom is desireable and how to achieve that. But this is a fatally flawed misconception of Republicans has allowed their behaviour to continue without being met with forcefulness when democrats actually do hold power (at state or federal level).
In the hands of a fundamentalist Republican all the tools of democracy are used as weapons to beget greater power: free speech is turned into lies and abuse, the ‘law’ becomes a weapon of harm, government funds are devoted to harming rather than healing and to oppression rather than opportunities; the police no longer protect but are used to subdue, dissenting voices are framed as dishonourable and dangerous, religion practised as acts of kindness, commonality and humility is now a tool to judge, divide and condemn.
As partisian judges beholden to Republican undemocratic values slowly take over and occupy an ever greater proportion of the judical bench the ability to provide democratic checks and balances in the future will soon become impossible to implement. The passage of necessary laws and regulations will be either blocked or experience ‘death by a thousand cuts’ — see how the Roe v Wade has been persistently whittled away to where effective access to abortions is now denied in many states — in plain contradiction to the actual law.
