As president today, Trump sits atop a party that has CRISPRed The Lie right into its genetic code. Need evidence of that? You don’t have to go back any further than, say, yesterday, to see in what way the Republicans are preparing to deliver on their breast-beating pledge to give you a better health-care plan than Obama did.

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Now, in what has to be the most flamboyantly cynical and dangerous jujitsu the GOP has yet dreamed up, they have decided to apply the name “fake news” to … that’s right, real news. Trump has been misrepresenting facts and reality with truly breathtaking brazenness, confounding and tripping up independent media in their attempts to get things straight. And the sporadic times that the independent press does set the record straight, their reward is to have the President of the United States label it, and their entire organization “fake news.” Good luck, America.

And speaking of the independent media, they still haven’t caught on. They twist the bedsheets at night worrying about what they can fairly call a “lie.” Let’s just say that their exertions in this regard have been less than sufficient. My advice would be to shelve the careful formulations and report that a manically fraudulent administration is simply that. White gloves will not forestall Trump’s assault on their credibility or survival.

And speaking of assaults, the public had better start waking up to this mainlining of lies as well. It’s not simply warping governing institutions. You simply can’t build anything that works with mismeasured parts.