If Democrats are going to combat this sort of nonsense effectively. If we are going to have any hope of making our programs into realities, if we are going to succeed in helping the very people most opposed to us, then we are going to have to overcome this pernicious stereotype. The way to do that is not to sputter and look askance at the idiotic things being said by our Republican opponents. It is not to try to out-just-plain-folks them. It is to create our own counter narrative and to make people understand it.

Our narrative is simple. We are competent and they are not. Our policies work and theirs don’t. Most of all, you can’t trust anything a Republican says because all they ever do is lie.

Rebuttal has to be within the framework of a counter narrative, one that damages the enemy. "That's not true," by itself is weak, regardless of the actual facts.

It must be placed in the context of a larger narrative and that narrative is "The GOP are damned liars."

In order to do that, the debunking statements has to be preceded with a priming statement that establishes the counter-narrative.

For example:

"Well, you have to remember that these are the same people that told us that Iraq had WMDs and that they were going to bring in Osama bin Laden dead or alive. You know I thought that after those disasters they would have learned something, but I have to give my Republican colleagues something. They are nothing if not incorrigible. I really thought that after all the lies on health care failed so miserably that they would change their ways, but I guess that was my own fault by now I ought to know better and I suppose we should only have expected them to double down on dishonesty. Still, this latest lie is breathtaking in its chutzpah. What is even more surprising is that figures in the media who ought to know better are even giving in any air time. The truth of the matter is . . ."

or

"Well that may not be the stupidest lie the GOP has ever peddled, but I have to admit it's in the running. You see the truth is . . . "

or

"You know these people repeat these lies with such apparent conviction that I wonder if they even know what the truth is anymore. In a way I pity them. They really seem to believe that holding power is more important than anything in the world and they are willing to quite literally say anything in an attempt to keep their seats. This one, however, should have been out of bounds. Most of the things Frank Luntz tells them to say at least have the virtue of being remotely plausible. This one is clearly of the flat earth, sun rising in the West variety. It would be funny if it weren't for the fact that so many in the media give these people a platform for their outrages on the truth. . ."

Our story is simple. The GOP are a bunch of damned liars. That must be the point that we seek to drive home every time we start with our debunking. After thirty years we should have learned that debunking itself is not enough. Without an overall framing narrative that we repeatedly seek to drive home we will forever be playing intellectual whack-a-mole with the lies these people dream up and all we will achieve is a he-said, she-said, stalemate, which will favor the status quo and thus favor the Republicans.