All politicians lie, its their job, like lawyers and businessmen, they are trying to sell a product or represent their side. They spin, misquote, selectively pick data, ignore embarassing truths, all the tricks and dodges in the propagandist's grab bag. Both Republicans and Democrats do this, they always have, so did Whigs and Tories and Federalists and all the rest. Not only do people subconsciously favor their side, they consciously present it in a better light to persuade the uncommitted and reinforce their allies. People tend to believe what is best for them is what is best for everybody. It is perfectly natural, not sinister at all.

But the kind of outright lies, misquotes, out-of-context editing and other cheating I've seen from conservative Republicans this year is totally unprecedented. No one in my memory, Republican or Democrat, has ever lied like that. You have to go back a century or more to see that kind of cheating.

As I pointed out in my response to Buck, I believe it is because the modern conservative has convinced himself so thoroughly in the righteousness of his cause, and the total evil of his opponents, that he feels anything that promotes that cause, or frustrates his enemies, is perfectly justifiable; in fact, it is his moral imperative to employ those methods. And today, with the country as polarized as it is, he knows that no one on his side will dispute it (even if they know it is wrong) and nothing anyone on the other side thinks matters (even if it is right).

Mr Romney's etch-a-sketching and flip-flopping were perfectly obvious to his primary opponents, as they pointed out to us every single day of the GOP nominating process. Now they have all been conveniently forgotten and the Right speaks with one, clear, united voice. In any Congressional fight, individual legislators will occasionally cross party lines and vote with the other side on matters of principle or the desires of their constituency. Not in the Republican Caucus. They are disciplined. And those who don't toe the party line, or simultaneously change it like a flock of birds in flight, are quickly replaced with True Believers in GOP primaries.

I'm really scared Jody. I've never seen my country like this before, not even in the darkest days of the Civil Rights era. I am afraid for what will happen if Romney wins, not because I think he's a bad man (in fact, he's probably the best of the lot). I'm afraid of what follows him, whether he wins or loses. I'm afraid because of what now is considered OK to do in politics, what has become totally acceptable to Republicans, so it is only a matter of time before it is uncritically employed by Democrats using the age-old schoolyard excuse: "they started it"...

Its not just lies, its deliberate obstructionism, legislative blackmail, switching positions for purely tactical reasons, to subordinate national interest to the humiliation of an opponent, unrestricted anonymous campaign contributions, punishing moderates, strict voting discipline, voter suppression and franchise restriction, and all the rest. The Republicans did not invent any of this, and the Democrats are not innocent of any of it either, but I have never seen it applied as ruthlessly and systematically as I have by the modern conservative movement. Even the Oath to the Constitution has been superseded, if not replaced, by the Oath to Norquist. Hitler made the Wehrmacht swear allegiance to him, not the nation or the Constitution.

My party will either be crushed by these tactics, or it will adopt them wholeheartedly, without excuse or apology, and become just as bad. I almost said "forced to adopt" but I'm not fooling myself, Liberals have no monopoly on civic virtue, they'll have no more trouble coming up with excuses than the Right did. Either way, I see no good coming from this. I fear for my country. Not for my party, or my views on welfare or national defense or health care or taxes; I fear for my country.