When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

In Washington, D.C there are euphemisms for lies, such as “spin,” “alternative facts,” “hyperbole,” “just joking,”

I’m taken with the phrase “reality distortion field” used by former press secretary Anthony Scaramucci to describe the atmosphere around President Donald Trump. Because the President’s pronouncements are more than idle musings; they are a calculated fog of confusion.

Fog descends when lies multiply, ferment, or build on one another, because the record is never corrected and  statements become whole mythologies or unresolved contradictions.  We despair of finding the truth and begin to deny that truth even exists. It is only your truth and my truth—pure relativism. Many politicians rage against it, while using it deliberately to keep voters from making rational choices.

This morning’s New York Times printed a “litany” of Trump’s whoppers just over the past two weeks to illustrate the “reality distortion field” described by Scaramucci.  They range from false bragging to distorting the record to complete inaccuracies. The article links the lies to specific evidence of their inaccuracy.

“He has asserted that construction has begun on the border wall (it has not), that he is one of the most popular American presidents in history (he is not), that he ‘always opposed the  Iraq war (he did not), that the stock market reopened the day after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 (it did not) that his tax cut was the largest in history (it was not), and that the United States is the only country that guarantees citizenship to those born here (it is not).” (“Inside What even an Ally Calls Trump’s ‘Reality Distortion Field,” November 1, 2018).

More dangerous than the random inaccuracies uttered by the President is the normalizing of his behavior, as if it were a requirement of leadership or a manner of speech. Without the much-spurned media to call attention to the daily falsehood, our crap detectors are easily lulled to uncritical sleep.

Approaching the midterm elections, voters succumb to the “reality distortion field” by declaring, “they all lie,” or “you can’t know what’s true.” This is the number one reason I hear for not voting—we are trapped in the RDF (“reality distortion field”).

And for those who drag themselves to the polls, the despair of knowing the truth will likely lead them to choose the incumbent, “the devil you know,” because of his vague claims that the challenger is unqualified or will be controlled by some power broker in Washington. Such assertions are part of the RDF.

Lying is not just an institutionalized art of campaigning, but a sinister fogging of the truth to acquire and retain power.  Voters should not despair of knowing the truth.  That would be surrendering to the “father of lies,”   — the demagogue, the Dark Prince, Satan or whatever you may call him (her?).

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I believe lying is a malignant strategy to create the RDF in political campaigning, a campaign that is now a 365-day event. There are liars on all sides of the campaign, but not every claim or fact is a lie.

President Trump has virtually normalized lying, but if we accept the trope that “everybody lies”and neglect to vote to change what is wrong with our society, we give up our democratic power.  That would be a sad and futile day at the polls next Tuesday and a surrender of the power to vote on what each of us believes to be true.

Can we, in good conscience, give in to the RDF, the “reality distortion field”?