The Republican Trust Deficit

Her: "Tell them you're an expert with FrameMaker."
Me: "But I'm not an expert with FrameMaker."
Her: "I know, but just tell them you're an expert."

That's the gist of an argument I had with a recruiter a few years ago on the eve of a job interview. I was trying for a technical writing contract at a company near Dallas, a job I was fairly well qualified to perform. The tricky part about a contract like that is that you're generally jumping into the middle of a project, and the customer needs you to get up to speed immediately. That means the customer needs someone who knows the software that company is using.

I'm always honest about my software skills during such an interview. That might lose me a few contracts, but it also means that I don't get a reputation for lying to customers. That's not an example of high morality on my part, it's just a recognition that in the contracting world, honest contractors are more valuable than liars. Honesty is necessary if you want to solve problems in a civilized, professional environment.

The recruiter didn't understand that. From her point of view, if lying would get you something you wanted, lying was the way to go.

And her attitude seems to be the same attitude governing Republican politics these days.

Baseline Bullshit Plus
We're used to a certain amount of bullshit from politicians. In the old days, maybe that wasn't such a handicap. In modern times, when we're trying to maintain a technological civilization, we no longer have time for bullshit. If we're going to solve problems, we need to honestly identify those problems, and we need to honestly judge the results of the solutions we try.

The Republican Party seems to have either forgotten that or to just be ignoring it. Their agenda these days is full of examples of them getting worked up about problems that are either small or non-existent while ignoring the problems we should be working on.

Take voting fraud. According to the GOP, this is a big problem that requires reworking voting procedures, but they haven't been able to show evidence of the problem. The party has also been dishonest in describing their solution as merely requiring voter identification. The changes that Republican politicians have been making to voting procedures go far beyond merely requiring an ID to vote.

Take drug use among the unemployed. According to the GOP, this is a big problem that requires widespread drug testing in violation of the Fourth Amendment, but the results of their own programs have failed to show evidence of the problem. Nevertheless, the party insists on lying to America about this being a problem.

The GOP's Big Lie
That brings us to global warming, the unintended consequence of burning fossil fuels that every thinking conservative should be screaming about. Even though the GOP doesn't need any evidence to see a voting fraud problem or a drug use problem, when it comes to global warming the party actually rejects the overwhelming evidence that we have a problem.

The Republican Party's denial about global warming is based on lies, because the denial ultimately relies on the belief in a decades-long, world-wide conspiracy by climatologists to destroy America with a carbon tax so that they can get more research funding. The only evidence the party presents for this alleged conspiracy is the assertion that such a conspiracy exists.

Unfortunately for the GOP, nobody else agrees with their denial about global warming. Outside the party and its media allies, outside the group that believes Obama is a secret Muslim and that the American military is practicing to take over Texas, such denial has become a joke.

Is the party finally willing to admit that they were wrong? Are they willing to admit that the voting fraud epidemic doesn't exist? Are they willing to admit that drug use among the unemployed isn't widespread? Are they willing to admit that they have harmed America and the rest of the world by delaying action on global warming?

The answer seems to be 'no', especially when it comes to global warming. Instead the party is sticking with dishonesty, although it's modifying its lies somewhat. Now the story among Republican politicians is that they're "not scientists" and that nobody really knows what's going on.

Situational Skepticism
All it takes for the GOP to trample on the Fourth Amendment is some businessman whispering in their ears that they're seeing a lot of drug use among job candidates. The GOP never questions those whispers. All it takes for them to start reworking voting laws are unfounded rumors of widespread voting fraud. The GOP never questions those rumors.

But when it comes to global warming, a problem that has been verified beyond any sane doubt, the GOP wants America to believe that they're suddenly "skeptics" who haven't seen enough evidence to convince them. It's hard to believe that anyone in America still believes anything a Republican politician says after this kind of performance.

I can't trust someone whose principles change from one situation to the next. Can you?

Republican Moral Decay
The GOP's enthusiastic embrace of dishonesty is even more troubling when you think about how they try to portray themselves as a Christian party, as a party that has deep moral roots. The religion they claim to champion expressly forbids bearing false witness. There are no exceptions in the original commandment for political campaigns, but there seems to be an exception written in the policies of the GOP.

Morally, lying is generally considered a bad thing in western culture. Practically, lying is one of the worst things you can do when trying to identify and solve problems. If the GOP ever wants to be fit to govern a modern, technological civilization like America, it's going to have to reject systematic dishonesty as acceptable behavior. It's going to have to overcome its trust deficit.

You Republicans can't just keep ignoring this problem by pointing fingers at other people. You're going to have to take a long, hard look at what your party has become and decide if it really represents the kind of nation we deserve and the kind of people you want to be.