The GOP’s Gaslighting Works Because Its Voters Aren’t ‘Doing Their Own Research’

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Originally, we were going to use this Sunday editorial to point out the blatant hypocrisy and utter shamelessness of Republicans trying to exploit the unfolding Graham Platner debacle for broader political gain by somehow making it sound as though it is the Democrats who are indulging and supporting morally corrupt or even criminal candidates.

We would have quoted one of those GOP phonies offering their patently ridiculous takes, like Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who embarrassed himself by saying this: “We’ve seen all these Democrat leaders stand up and say we want more Graham Platners in our party. We want more socialists, communists, and alleged rapists.”

We would have pointed out the obvious lie and that, as soon as their party’s Senate candidate in Maine was accused of sexual assault and not “just” having a tattoo, writing some controversial social media posts a few years ago, or sexting with other women while married, they almost uniformly called for him to drop out of the race.

Just as they did with then-Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) earlier this year.

https://whowhatwhy.sitetherapy.co/politics/us-politics/the-swalwell-scandal-one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others/

We were going to indignantly note that all of this is happening in the same week that Donald Trump was ordered to finally pay up after having been found guilty of sexual abuse last year. We would have used italics and exclamation points to highlight that, while Platner is merely accused of sexual assault, the president has been found guilty of the same thing — and is on tape admitting to groping women against their will!

And we would have meticulously demonstrated that all of the other Platner controversies pale in comparison to stuff Trump has said and done. After all, what is worse: sending sexually explicit messages to women or having sex with a porn star shortly after your third wife — with whom you cheated on your second wife — gave birth to your son? And it’s not as though the Mainer was buddies with Jeffrey Epstein and appears to have something to hide with regard to that relationship.

Then, we were going to explain that blatant hypocrisy in such matters is not limited to Trump. After all, Pete Hegseth, who paid off a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her, is secretary of defense; Brett Kavanaugh, who has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, is a Supreme Court justice (as is Clarence Thomas, for that matter); and the GOP’s Senate candidate in Texas has been mired in scandals involving various alleged crimes (although not sexual assault) for over a decade.

Finally, we would have made some clever quip about how the president appears to be the only Republican aware of this hypocrisy because he couldn’t get himself to condemn Platner even when given the opportunity.

Instead, he merely opined, “It’s really a question of whether or not you believe the woman. A lot of people say big falsehoods.” They sure do, Donald. They sure do.

The biggest problem is that these shameful tactics are working. And that is at least partially the fault of the American people.

But drawing attention to blatant Republican hypocrisy is not the purpose of this editorial. For one thing, anybody with even a cursory interest in politics is already up to date on all these outrages.

But even more importantly, we realized that the biggest problem is not that the US president and his entire party brazenly distort reality at every turn and lie with reckless abandon.

It’s also not that there is an entire propaganda machine that helps them convince Americans that up is down.

No, the biggest problem is that these shameful tactics are working. And that is at least partially the fault of the American people.

It’s also maddening. Because all of the lying, conning, and gaslighting Trump and the GOP are doing, aided and abetted by the billionaires controlling Fox News and a few other (corporate and social) media platforms, would fail if voters just used some common sense, showed a little interest in politics, and Googled a few things every now and then.

Take the Platner saga.

It shouldn’t take us, or anybody else, pointing out that Republicans are unabashed hypocrites in this case (and many others).

After all, Trump’s history as an  alleged, adjudicated, and self-confessed sexual abuser is well documented. And Hegseth has acknowledged that he paid off the woman who accused him, to the tune of $50,000. There is even a police report.

Uncovering these facts doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes level of sleuthing. You just need 60 seconds and a device connected to the internet.

Fighting propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation is a losing battle if voters don’t show any interest in truth, reality, and facts.

Conversely, there is no evidence that anybody knew beforehand about the allegations now levied against Platner. What is indisputable, however, is that his supporters immediately turned on him once credible accusations surfaced and that he quickly dropped out of the race.

And, still, the party that has shown a slavish devotion to Trump — i.e., the man who was ordered to pay $5.8 million this week to the woman a jury found was sexually abused by one Donald J. Trump — has the audacity of trying to spin this into evidence that “Democrats support rapists.”

It reflects poorly on American voters that Republicans believe they can get away with that.

Unfortunately, history proves that they might; after all, this is just the most recent example.

We could name many more. In fact, that’s basically what we are doing here each Sunday.

But fighting propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation is a losing battle if voters don’t show any interest in truth, reality, and facts.

The ultimate example is Trump’s Big Lie.

It is galling that the president’s false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him can persist even though he has not produced a shred of credible evidence over the past six years and not one of the millions of people who allegedly voted against him “illegally” has been found.

Instead, every indication is that none of this happened.

Still, tens of millions of Americans, including many of those who proudly boast that they are “doing their own research,” apparently can’t be bothered to open a browser, type, “What specific evidence is there that the 2020 election was stolen,” and realize that there isn’t any.

That’s the real problem.

We write a lot about the unique threat to democracy Donald Trump (and, by extension, the GOP) poses, and that’s certainly the case.

However, let’s also not forget that the indifference of voters is making his job a lot easier.

That doesn’t mean that the defenders of democracy, justice, and America’s founding ideals should throw up their hands in despair and call it quits.

But they must remember that simply having the truth on their side is not enough.

They have to be even more committed to telling the truth than Republicans are to spinning their lies.