For years, I’ve heard the refrain of “all politicians lie” as a defense of Trump’s constant stream of lies.

And I accept that. I’m sure that all politicians lie. But something else I’m very sure of is that we should hold them accountable for their lies. Bill Clinton was impeached for lying about his affair, for crying out loud.

If we accept the lies as a matter of course, and don’t hold our politicians accountable for the lies, we are deliberately allowing ourselves to fall victim to those lies. Because people accept the little lies with impunity, they then end up swallowing the bigger lies because there’s no way to differentiate.

It goes from “I was joking” or “I was being sarcastic” to ” I’ll release my tax returns”, “I’ll release my Healthcare plan in two weeks” and “I’ll reduce the federal deficit”.

And it’s not far from there to “It was a perfect phone call” and “I won this election by a lot!” and even “I’ll prove that I won I this next lawsuit” and “I’ll be marching with you”

When you don’t hold people accountable for the little lies and allow yourself to pick and chose what to believe because “policies”, you do the hard work of indoctrination yourself. And then look where things end up.