“Irving Kristol, the godfather of neoconservatism, embraced supply-side economics—the claim, refuted by all available evidence and experience, that tax cuts pay for themselves by boosting economic growth. Writing years later, he actually boasted about valuing political expediency over intellectual integrity: ‘I was not certain of its economic merits but quickly saw its political possibilities.’” (Krugman)
And soon forgot the truth—
It gave their base erections
Who now grow long in tooth.
The lies cannot be numbered
So vast they multiplied,
The party’s conscience slumbered,
Diverging from truth wide.
“Conservative” their banner,
But what did they conserve?
Spun off in such a manner
How to set right the swerve?
Will more lies fix the lying?
Will clenched eyes build new facts?
Will blaming and denying
Conceal well-published acts?
I can’t enumerate them,
The quantity of lies,
And neither loathe nor hate them,
But will not compromise.
I will not call them “good men,”
“Believers in a cause,”
“Maligned, misunderstood men,”
For they respect no laws.
And worst are their enablers,
The common public sort,
As fantasizers, fablers
Who take it all for sport.
“Both sides equally do it”
Is what you’ll hear them say,
“Reality is fluid,
So this is mine today.”
Ah, lies and slanders made them
Who now avert their eyes,
Or wear Ray-Bans to shade them
But we have seen their lies.
Posterity, remember
What brought the body down:
Lies smolder like an ember,
Till it explodes full-blown.