Lies, Damn Lies and Republicans

    "There ain't nothin' more powerful than the odor of mendacity."
                                                Big Daddy Pollitt in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof



    Time was, politicians might fear being caught in a lie. If Big Daddy were to sniff the air today, he would surely say that times have changed.
    Lies are so common in political discourse that news outlets devote continuing features to enumerating and explaining them.  At the moment, Republicans would win a contest scored on frequency and gall. They are struggling with obsolescence in their brand, and with an acute anemia of leadership.
    Their presidential crop may be even thinner than in 2012, when their ticket featured a clueless plutocrat and a partisan hustler.  Now, in the echo chambers of their early season speechfests, a darling has been Sen. Rand Paul, son of former Rep. Ron Paul -- a pair whose behavior suggests the existence of a crackpot gene.  Sen. Marco Rubio's name appears occasionally on the marquee.  But it flickers.  The young senator is noticeably green, and his voter appeal could be debated: He gained his Senate seat by winning a  multi-candidate election in which more people voted for someone else than for him.
    New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is struggling awkwardly to rise above scandal.  He claims that when his staff took it upon themselves to lock the door to New York City, he just didn't notice.  Meanwhile, confirming that he is not a natural for the china shop of diplomacy, he startled an influential Jewish audience with references to Israeli "occupied territories."
    Christie confuses swaggering with leadership, or he hopes voters will.  And with magnified scrutiny he may begin to resemble Boss Tweed in more than girth.  Mindful of this, old guard Republicans are trying to gin up enthusiasm for still another member of the Bush family, former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Among those displaying markedly restrained enthusiasm is Jeb Bush himself.
    The weakness of the Republican brand is profound, and not only as it was symbolized in Mitt Romney's royalist view of government. Demographic shifts and evolving attitudes are moving the country away from ideas the GOP insists on standing for.
    In extremis, the party has resorted to chicanery. This has sustained mindless, showboat attacks on a duly elected president.  In Congress it has produced dangerous obstruction.  At the state level it has produced laws nakedly intended to impede voting by likely Democrats.
    And it is about to fuel fanciful claims that superior policy positions are moving Republicans toward gains in off-year Congressional elections.
    The truth is twofold:
    -- Republicans will gain Congressional seats in the November elections.
    -- The districts up for decision this year are so heavily gerrymandered that a fire hydrant could win on the Republican ticket.
    Time is against the Republican Party as it now stands, both the old barons and the Tea Party faction that is clutching them in a death dance.  Time is also against cranks, opportunists and vigilantes in public life. The American electorate -- patient to a fault in the aggregate -- eventually insists that leaders pay effective attention to the glamourless, sleeves-up business of running the country.
    For now we are left to regret that a major political party has passed into the hands of people who display little respect for the citizens they supposedly represent, and little regard for integrity in the democratic process.
    Thus an irony emerges for people who know  that thoughtful conservatism makes a useful contribution to political discourse:  Their best hope may be that today's Republican Party will finally shake itself apart and leave room for better.