In January 2021, a losing political candidate stood before a “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., and claimed without evidence that “they sneaked in a few [ballots] from my opponent. And what did they do? They stole it!” Then he exhorted the frenzied crowd to “fight!” and “overturn the election for Donald J. Trump!”

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? That sounds like Trump himself lying to push his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol Building while Congress was certifying the election that Trump lost by millions of votes.

But that wasn’t Trump. That was pre-infamy George Santos lying about his 2020 election loss at a rally the day before the insurrection. Mimicking Trump, Santos told the crowd, “They stole my election!” In fact, Santos was routed in 2020 by 12.4 percent. Santos also claimed at that rally that his home had been vandalized because he supported Trump. In reality, Santos’s landlord, who lives in the same building, disputes that claim, and no police or insurance records support Santos’s story.

“The violence is real!” Santos said about the likely made-up vandalism. But Santos was accidentally half right about violence. The truth is that the Trump supporters violently attacked the Capitol Building and violently opposed our nation’s democratic tradition of peaceful transition of power. That violence was clearly real.

A comprehensive account of Santos’s lies would take multiple pages, but it’s worth summarizing his lowlife highlights. He has gone by multiple names. He denied and then sort of admitted being a drag queen. He lied about being a college volleyball player and Broadway producer, his college and prep school education, his employment, his income, his campaign financing, his criminal past in Brazil, his religion, his grandmother being a Holocaust survivor, his mother being in the South Tower on 9/11, his employees being killed in the Pulse nightclub attack, and surviving a brain tumor and assassination attempt.

Worst, it appears he lied about raising money for the medical treatment of a veteran’s service dog. Santos withheld the money, the dog died, and the veteran nearly killed himself from grief. Is there a level of hell deep enough for what Santos did?

Santos really isn’t an outlier in his party. He has aligned himself with other high-profile Republican misinformers including Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, and Matt Gaetz. And he gets defended by right-wing mouthpieces such as Tucker Carlson (a self-admitted liar whom a court ruled no reasonable person should believe). To their credit, some Republicans have called on Santos to resign. But Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House, hasn’t proposed expelling Santos because that might risk his slim Republican majority in the House. For Republicans, power most often trumps integrity.

Santos fits comfortably in the Republican Party because much of current Republican thinking is dishonest: Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations trickle down to everyone and reduce the deficit. More guns promote safety. Climate change isn’t real. Government programs that benefit everyday Americans are socialism. Democrats hate America and God. Democrats want open borders. Recognizing institutional racism is racist. Democrats murder babies. Fox News is fair and balanced. Voter fraud is rampant. The election was rigged against Trump. Jan. 6 was a justified protest. Biden has no accomplishments. The list of Republican lies is long — not even including countless right-wing conspiracies about everything from vaccines to Paul Pelosi’s attack.

For all the Santos coverage, another Republican’s lies have been less publicized but far more dangerous. In 2022, Republican voters in New Mexico nominated Solomon Peña for a state house position. Peña, an ardent Trump supporter with a prison record for robbery, lost the general election to his Democratic opponent by nearly a three-to-one margin. But Peña refused to concede and claimed, without evidence, that the election was rigged. Even knowing that Peña was clearly lying, Republicans chose him in mid-January for county ward chair and the GOP State Central Committee.

Two days later, Peña was arrested and charged with a politically motivated shooting spree. Law enforcement officials say that Pena hired shooters, provided weapons, and joined in shooting at the homes of four Democratic officials. Miraculously, no one was injured or killed.

At most times in American history, Santos and Peña would be too absurd even for fiction or bad movies. But they’re both real-life Republicans, and there’s no Democratic equivalent to these guys. And there’s certainly no Democratic version of Trump’s lies, amplified by Republicans and right-wing media, that led to the Jan. 6 insurrection and Peña’s crimes.

America is currently at a dangerous tipping-point. One major party has operationalized dishonesty to the point where it generates violence more than it contributes to productive governing. That’s not an exaggeration. That’s not unfairly bashing Republicans. That’s reality.

We need a functional Republican Party. There’s much about our nation that’s worth “conserving,” so a conservative party has a role in government. But there’s nothing “conservative” about lying. Republican policies are ineffective and unpopular, but instead of improving their policies, Republicans lie to stay in power. That’s incredibly destructive for the United States.

There’s an old saying that a bird needs a right wing and a left wing to fly, but America’s right wing is broken. We can’t fly until it’s mended.

John Sheirer is an author and teacher from Florence. His latest book is the award-winning, “Stumbling Through Adulthood: Linked Stories.” Find him at JohnSheirer.com.]]>