we're beyond lies now. they're tribal markers of loyalty now.

once we fought to label donnie's outrageously false statements "lies".

and we complained how reluctant the media was to call them such.

the media has marginally moved in that direction. they're not completely there yet, but they've gotten closer to characterizing donnie as a liar and his many false statements as lies.


unfortunately, this hardly matters, because to think of his deliberately false statements as "lies" really misses the point entirely.

these statements are not really intended to deceive anyone. instead, they're intended to provide stark tribal identification.

think about it. donnie says something obviously false. magats embrace it completely and sane people object to it. bingo! donnie has helped his tribe feel unified and, from their point of view, his tricked the sane people into outing themselves as "enemies".


in this light, from their point of view, it doesn't bother them in the least that the statement is a lie. in fact, the more outrageous the lie, the better! that way, they can better identify who is on their side and who isn't.



i'm not saying flagging his statements as lies isn't important -- it is -- but we have to move far beyond that and hammer how *damaging* and *evil* those statements are, to all of america, magats included.


the real problem isn't that he lies. we're dealing with a different kind of politicians. the real problem is that he divides us using those lies. the real problem is that he denigrates millions of americans with his lies. the real problem is that he uses those lies to distract us from the real problems we face. the real problem is that he uses those lies to reduces civic discourse to tribal identification.


to stop at calling them lies is to ignore the real problem.