Which all jumped into focus for me in this Steve Benen piece on Maddowblog:
The headline on the Post’s piece yesterday read, “7 times the Trump team denied something – and then confirmed it.” This morning, it was updated to read, “8 times the Trump team denied something – and then confirmed it.” This afternoon, as more examples came to the fore, it reads, “9 times the Trump team denied something – and then confirmed it.” There’s no reason to believe it won’t be updated again.
The point, of course, is that anytime the president and the White House deny something, there’s simply no reason to accept the claim at face value. Members of Trump World have earned a reputation for lying reflexively, and they’ve been caught too many times for anyone to consider them credible.
Considering the GOP atmosphere of team politics and how this enables the habit of successful lying, we’re once again getting a lesson in why team politics is a very bad policy. Here’s the problem: within the toxic structure of the GOP, where criticism of policy is not encouraged, it becomes a hothouse for the self-serving lie. After all, if no one is to critique, then why even research a critique? Members are encouraged to accept it and move on. And thus a habit is ingrained.
But when our fresh-faced candidates and their assistants get out in the real world, where bad old media demands, say, truthfulness, then they get in trouble. Because they’ve learned in the school of hard knocks that lies work, they propelled them to success.
Except it wasn’t the school of hard knocks. It was the school of feather-beds.
But at this point lying is ingrained, they can’t help using a lie when it’ll make them look better, let them advance what passes for an agenda. And then they get torn to shreds, humiliated, along with their party. And there’s only two ways to fix it. Get rid of team politics.
Or render the electoral system impotent to get rid of YOU.
So, gentle reader, if you’re a GOP member, perhaps you should begin the campaign against team politics. If not for the good of the United States, at least for the good of the Party.
