Republicans Don't Know Fact From Satire

Is it more honest and representative to be stupid if your voters are stupid? Is stupid the new preferred profile? Is it smart to pretend to be stupid if you're representing a Republican district?

John Fleming, R-Louisiana posted a outrageous piece of nonsense from The Onion as if it were true. Luckily for him the nonsense he posted to Facebook fit in perfectly with the nonsense "facts" that other Republicans say about Planned Parenthood. Was he being stupid or is he smart enough to know his constituents don't know the difference between truth and fiction?

On a recent Colbert Report we hear Republican John Kyl stating a falsehood about Planned Parenthood and then defending it by saying he didn't mean for it to be taken factually... Colbert cracks up several times trying to tell this story, but it's more pathetic than funny. Kyl expected to be believed.

The thing is John Kyl isn't a satirist the way the Onion or Stephen Colbert are satirists. People expect him to know fact from nonsense. When he doesn't know truth from satiric exaggeration or fiction or lies his constituents don't either, which is exactly what the Republicans want. Satirists make fun of stupidity, Republicans exploit it.