The Screaming Cheeto™ has a very strained relationship with the truth. . .ANY truth. . .

I have friends who are Republicans (Thank you in advance for your pity. I accept it.) and a few who are willing to engage me politcally. I can honestly say subjectively that I have never lost an argument to them. No, really. They come at me with debunked right wing noise machine talking points and I respond to them with facts. (Funny thing, those facts. . .you always win with those.) I tell you sincerely that I am amazed that they continue to come back for more.

A couple of weeks ago, I sent my Republican friend of mine a few lines of the Washington Post article entitled “Trump versus Clinton: The Pinocchio count so far”. By and large, he is a good man with 3 daughters and considers himself an evangelical. The part I sent him said the following:

As you see, the ratio of Trump’s Four-Pinocchios ratings is sky-high. In fact, nearly 85 percent of Trump’s claims that we vetted were false or mostly false. A line graph of Trump’s numbers would show a very steep sky jump. By contrast, Clinton has a bell curve of a typical politician. The number of false claims equals the number of true claims, while her other claims fall mostly somewhere in the middle.

“How plain can I make it? TRUMP IS A HABITUAL LIAR OF THE HIGHEST ORDER!” I sent him another paragraph:

Trump is also the rare politician who will repeat false claims, over and over, even after they have been debunked by fact-checking organizations. Most politicians will simply stop repeating a claim after receiving Four Pinocchios, our worst rating.

I told him “What is most frightening, is that in spite of cold hard facts showing this to be true, supporters continue to support him and believe those lies. Breathtakingly amazing.”

His response? “We trust him more than political hacks. that’s all there is to it.”

I told him, “Again. . .He. Is. A. Liar. . . .Habitually. . .These aren’t someone’s opinion, they are facts. If someone is lying nearly EIGHTY PERCENT of the time their mouth is open, then that means you CAN NOT believe an overwhelming majority of ANYTHING they say.”

Then, I lowered the boom. . .

I said, “Let’s put it this way. . .while I know you never would, if you habitually lied to your wife 80% of the time you were married to her, and that was pointed out to her, how much trust do you think she would put in you and what you have to say about your relationship? How long do you think she would stay with you? Not long. . .Yet, you and others are willing to accept Trump simply because he isn’t Hillary. . . .somebody who has been verified to be accurate in what she says nearly 80% of the time.”

Silence.

That’s when it hit me. He knows I’m right. And then something else hit me:

They just. . .don't. . .care. . .

The ones who lined up in the 90’s to throw stones at Bill Clinton because “character counts” in a politician, have abandoned their own sacrosanct beliefs simply because winning was more important than their alleged principles. . .beating Hillary was all that mattered. In the face of unrefutable truth, they don’t answer the questions that are hard and instead, have decided to wink at a liar among liars. . .the man whose statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015 Lie of the Year.

The next time a Republican or a conservative wishes to engage you politically, just remember that they are coming to a battle of wits with an empty gun. Save your breath. . .

They just. . .don’t. . .care. . .