To compete as a Republican

... you have to be willing to tell blatant, outright, undeniable lies. In politics, practically everyone shades the truth. Yes, of course, even Democrats. Here's some normal political bullshit from Sarah Palin:

Palin discounted the administration’s view that the president’s plan would cut health care costs. The only path to lower costs, she said, was less treatment.

Never mind that anyone who can subtract can understand that the American health care system alone in the world spends hugely on overhead that doesn't contribute to care (that is, on insurance company bureaucracy). But this is a normal political deception. Those who don't engage in some happy talk and wishful thinking don't last very long, since most of us voters express our preference to be lied to in every poll.

What Palin and Limbaugh and the rest of the raving wingnuts are saying is well beyond any ordinary stretching and trimming. They and the entire Republican Party establishment are lying when they tell their rabid base that Democrats want to kill their family members. Yeah, that would meet our need for electoral popularity! We Democrats aren't even tough enough to even hurt Republicans in strictly legislative ways.

These Republicans know full well they're lying, but they know it's their path back to full exploitation of the severely polarized America that might reconsider its rejection of them. And they're calling us Nazis!

Update (8/10): Newt Gingrich stoops to defend this lie. Why is it again that the media views him as respectable?