It's Still A Lie, Even If You Believe It

Let's have a look around the conservative information bubble! Wear your galoshes.

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

Would You Lie To Me? Please!

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Here’s your daily reminder that millions of our fellow Americans live in a fact-free bubble.

DeSantis War Room 🐊 @DeSantisWarRoom

On this day three years ago, Fauci said it was “wise and prudent” to extend the national lockdown. We won’t forget.

If you read this tweet and said to yourself, what “national lockdown … did I miss something?" you’re not crazy. Indeed, if you listen to the clip above, Fauci speaks of a “mitigation process,” which refers to the various steps taken at the outset of the pandemic to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This included everything from mask-wearing and social distancing to limitations on mass gatherings, school closures, and stay-at-home orders. What didn’t happen in the Spring of 2020 was a national lockdown. Indeed, on the campaign trail, DeSantis often brags about rejecting mitigation measures and keeping the state open during COVID (which isn’t completely accurate, as this video shows).

SFDB @sfdb

@DeSantisWarRoom Just a few days from now, it will be the 3 year anniversary of this moment. There's a lot of people who won't forget. There's a lot of people who conveniently don't remember.

DeSantis, initially criticized for letting Florida’s beaches stay open in the early days of the pandemic, issued a stay-at-home order on April 1, 2020. However, this tidbit from a 2020 US News and World Report article directly refutes the above War Room claim.

The announcement comes a day after DeSantis said he would not issue a stay-at-home order unless directed to do so by the White House. When asked by a reporter Tuesday evening about DeSantis' comments, Vice President Mike Pence reiterated the White House's support for individual actions taken by governors but did not direct DeSantis to issue a stay-at-home order.

DeSantis on Wednesday cited President Donald Trump's decision to extend national social distancing guidelines until the end of April as part of his reasoning behind the new order, saying the White House guidance "represents effectively a national pause."

The reality is that each state decided on its own what mitigation measures to implement. There was no national lockdown or orders from the White House for states to shut down. Instead, there were recommendations that most states wisely followed (though a few did not). Had there been a national lockdown (as was the case in several countries around the world), it’s quite likely that many Americans who died from COVID would be alive today.

Again, all of this is obvious to anyone alive in March/April 2020 … but not it seems in the conservative fever swamp.

I am pretty confident that if you ask the average Fox News viewer, “were there national lockdowns in Spring 2020,” they will answer yes, just as they are likely to tell you that many American cities were burned to the ground during the demonstrations over the murder of George Floyd in the Summer of 2020 (this also is not true).

DeSantis is peddling this nonsense precisely because he knows it’s practically an article of faith among Republicans that a) Fauci is terrible, b) there were lockdowns, and c) he stood up to the bureaucrats and kept Florida open. Of course, none of these assertions are true ( I suppose the first one is subjective, but I feel comfortable saying it’s utter nonsense).

But as we know, the truth does not matter. GOP officeholders tell lies; Republican voters believe them; a new narrative/reality is created. Rinse and repeat. It’s no different from the now oft-heard claim that the Mueller Report exonerated Trump of wrongdoing. In fact, the report uncovered multiple incidents of the then-president seeking to obstruct justice in the Russia investigation. But Republican politicians constantly claim the opposite, and now it’s taken for granted among GOP voters. Reporters don’t even point out that it’s a lie anymore. It’s simply the new right-wing reality.

When there is no moral or ethical impediment to uttering mistruths, no shame in abject dishonesty, and every incentive to not tell the truth … then politicians will lie their asses off. If voters’ sole information sources about politics are the politicians peddling those lies and a news network that pushes propaganda and has no fealty to the truth, they're going to believe it. And that’s your pithy summary of what Republican politics are like in 2023 — it’s a separate reality, divorced from truth and common sense.

Speaking Of Lying Liars

I imagine some of you saw this heated exchange on Capitol Hill yesterday.

CBS News @CBSNews

After the Nashville school shooting, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) used the Capitol hallway to express his anger about laws contributing to gun violence in the U.S. This is what happened when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) suggested to him that teachers should be allowed to carry guns.