When your moral compass, or IQ, points south

Debunking lies put out by your presidential nominee in the middle of a natural disaster.

I know it shouldn’t be funny, but it kind of is. North Carolina Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards, who represents most of the area hit by Hurricane Helene, had to put out a fact sheet to debunk the lies put out by his GOP colleagues in Congress and his party’s nominee for president. That should be pretty telling.

Edwards added a page to his website called “Debunking Helene Response Myths.” The very first point reads, “Hurricane Helene was NOT geo-engineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock.” I’m sorry, but that is hilarious. The audience is the Republican base because the rest of us aren’t getting that BS.

Majorie Taylor Greene has been tweeting that the government is creating these hurricanes and sending them into Republican areas. As Hurricane Milton rages into Florida, another Republican Member of Congress from that state is also trying to beat down the disinformation. Rep. Carlos Gimenez quote-tweeted Green, writing, “NEWS FLASH —> Humans cannot create or control hurricanes. Anyone who thinks they can, needs to have their head examined.”

Donald Trump and his Russian, Chinese, and Iranian buddies are peddling lies about the recovery effort faster than Edwards and his colleagues can debunk them. Decades of BS from Fox News, talk radio, and conspiracy websites have prepared the GOP base to believe anything nefarious about the government. Republicans politicians have created a monster of uninformed, easily manipulated people who can’t tell fact from fiction.

I’m not sure where the lithium deposit stuff originated, but watching Republicans try to beat back the lies created by other members of their party is funny as hell. It’s even funnier that they act like these lies originated in a vacuum when they all know that they’ve been spread by Donald Trump. The guy has millions of followers who will believe him over any credible source of information, including their own Republican Members of Congress.

Republicans have had numerous chances to both get rid of Trump and be honest with their base. Instead, they’ve cynically embraced Trump’s lies for electoral gain. He’s built an army of misanthropes like Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow on the back of the GOP. Republican leaders are willing to accept unqualified and morally compromised candidates for electoral majorities. They can’t bring themselves to disavow the crazy so now they are stuck with the likes of Robinson and Morrow. They deserve it.

Republicans have been lying to their constituents for so long their moral compasses are pointing south. Climate change is a hoax. The 2020 election was stolen! January 6 was a peaceful protest by American patriots. Hordes of immigrants are raping and killing Americans. Lowering taxes increases revenue. More guns make us safer. Vaccines kill people. Ivermectin cures COVID. Jewish space lasers started California wildfires. “They” are manipulating the weather to create massive hurricanes.

Responsible Republicans have left or are leaving the party. Every week, the Harris campaign is rolling out endorsements from GOP officials. In addition to Liz and Dick Cheney, former GOP U.S. Senator Jeff Flake has signed onto the Harris campaign. Seventeen members of the Reagan administration endorsed Harris saying Ronald Reagan would not support Trump. Numerous officials from both Bush administrations, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalas, are supporting Harris. They know that Trump will be bad for the country and they can’t stomach the lies anymore.

These conservatives have made clear that they haven’t changed their ideology. They just understand the threat that another Trump presidency poses to the country. The recent New York Times poll indicates that a lot of Republicans are following them. Nine percent of self-identified Republicans say they are supporting Harris. In states where the margin will be decided by a few thousands votes, these voters could make the difference. They are also patriots who put country before party.

Trump is running to fleece America for his family and friends. At this point, the Republicans who have stayed with the party are either part of the grift or victims of it.

Maybe I can help with some moral clarity for those questioning their party loyalty or their sanity. If your nominee for President of the United States is praising dictators like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jung-Un, Xi Jinping, or Victor Orban, he’s the bad guy. If your nominee for President of the United States is selling cheap watches, commemorative coins, crypto currency, or anything else for personal financial gain, he’s a conman and a grifter. If he’s says the 2020 election was stolen, he’s liar. If he called on a mob to interrupt the peaceful transfer power, he’s a traitor. And if he’s spewing disinformation that’s disrupting a rescue operation during a natural disaster, then he’s so callous that he lacks the moral character that the Founding Fathers expected of a president.

Finally, if you know all of that and are still supporting that guy, then you should check your own moral compass. If you’re somehow rationalizing that Democrats would be worse, then you’re just lying to yourself. Regardless, if you’re an elected official, political operative, pundit, or otherwise in the game and are still standing by the GOP presidential candidate after all that he’s done, you really don’t deserve much respect. Do yourself a favor. Go take a shower and then follow the leaders of the Reagan Revolution to recover some sense of dignity and better understand the definition of patriotism.