I’ve never been a fan of either Nancy Pelosi‘s progressive socialist politics or the cynical pragmatism with which she runs the House of Representatives. This is a woman that said Congress had to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in order to find out what was in it, which was hysterically dishonest statecraft.

None of this, however, grants anyone a special license to spread malicious lies about the woman. There is no excuse to resort to slander or libel to smear a political rival. Ever. We conservatives used to understand the crucial importance of truth in politics, but then we aren’t actually dealing with conservatives any more, are we?

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, a badly doctored video of Nancy Pelosi speaking before a progressive group was passed around by right wing outlets on social media, and left wing progressives were, of course, justifiably outraged. Reaction was more muted on the right, though conservatives have condemned it.

Unfortunately, most Republicans, especially ignorant Trumpists, who can barely operate their email, let alone identify a doctored video when they see one, chose to believe it was authentic, mainly because it confirmed their prejudices against Nancy Pelosi, even taking it as an invitation to unleash their ignorant rumors about her.

Once the original, unaltered video was released, rather than admit they were wrong and disassociate themselves from the right wing media outlets responsible for the doctored video, Trumpist Republicans merely slithered back to their conspiracy mongering, and many of them still actually believe the doctored video to be real.

Meanwhile, the very same rubes who gleefully passed around an obvious slander of Nancy Pelosi howl like house cats stranded in the rain whenever they see anything remotely critical of the GOP. When polled, the fascists actually support punishing media outlets for publishing “false news“. That standard is clearly unilateral.

Let’s not fool ourselves, though. The Democrats aren’t actually any better. They love using dishonest, racially and politically charged rhetoric, like “trickle down economics“, to slander conservative speakers and politicians. Even if it’s not entirely untrue of the nationalist right that has overrun the Republican Party, it’s still wrong.

So, unfortunately, there are no good guys in the pig fight over who controls Washington, D.C., and there won’t be until enough Americans demand something better than what either major political party has to offer. Until that happens, however, we’re stuck living in an age of lies and moral relativism. We deserve better, so demand better.

Liberty is For The Win!