George Santos/Devolder is a proven serial liar: he may actually be a Brazilian – not an American; he may have been helped into Congress by the Russians to discredit democracy; he lied about every aspect of his biography in an attempt to appeal to his chosen constituency – but he’s now at the beating heart of MAGA Republicanism, which is no real surprise given it was founded by Trump on a tidal wave of lies, which Trump continued to spew by the thousands during his misrule and after.

The rise of Santos/Devolder to wielding genuine power and influence in Congress – and being given committee assignments – despite his lies is only a natural extension of MAGA’s fascist vision of America: you’ll believe what we tell you to believe. At least Santos admits he’s lying all the time, which certainly makes him the most honest person in the #MAGAGOP right now.

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But far more interesting than the fascinatingly flawed and terribly talented Mr. Santos/Devolder himself is his utter acceptance among the GOP as a legitimate officeholder. What does the GOP’s capitulation to his fraud say about the state of our democracy? It’s exactly the message that the Russians had hoped for, if they indeed assisted him into office: how can anyone take seriously democracy as a principled exercise of sovereignty if someone who scams his way into the body is tolerated in Congress, even after his lies and frauds are exposed?

Santos/Devolder’s continued membership in Congress works as a facile critique of the very idea of democracy as an organizing principle of political life, but more specifically, it highlights the utterly amoral and instrumentalist approach to power of today’s GOP. The reason he can’t be removed is solely the GOP majority’s desire to hold onto power at any cost.

But is Santos/Devolder really a bigger liar than your average Congressmember? About personal matters – sure.

But what about compared to your average Congressmember (regardless of Party affiliation) as to policy and the actual aims of their respective Parties? Not conclusively.

It has been convincingly alleged by researchers that there is a nearly perfect lack of correlation between Congressional policy outcomes and American popular opinion, but a perfect alignment of outcomes with the preferences of the donor class. Let me repeat that: Congress doesn’t listen to the opinions of our citizens on average, it really only listens to the wealthiest who finance their campaigns. Members and Senators can SAY whatever, but when it comes time to actually PASS legislation, Congress only obeys the preferences and protects the interests of wealthy donors.

And this is true regardless of which Party is in control of Congress. [PDF of Gillen and Page’s research] Yes, even the Democrats too frequently act like the vassals of the oligarchy when in power. You serve whom you are dependent upon – and Congress is not dependent upon the citizenry alone for their power. Given that, isn’t Santos/Devolder really just the apotheosis of the general disease of dishonesty affecting our democracy? Representation in Congress is fundamentally untruthful about who they serve: and it ain’t you and me, Bucky.

While Santos/Devolder underlines the moral bankruptcy of the MAGAGOP specifically, he’s ironically the most honest of them ALL in that he is openly seeking his own interests, and those of his mysterious donors (who might be our adversaries), above the public good.

At least he’s not lying about where his loyalties actually lay. Most in Congress are.

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