Is there a tactical compulsive lying gap?

[cthulu2016]

This OP does not ask whether Republicans are bigger liars. They are, by orders of magnitude. It asks whether they gain a tactical political advantage from lying, and if lying is an effective political tactic, does being relatively honest cost elections? (That is a question, not a suggestion.)

Having seen flat lying about everything road tested by three twice-inaugurated Republican presidents (Nixon, Reagan, Bush II) it is far from obvious that that flat lying is an ineffective tactic. And the only Democrat to serve two full terms since FDR had the reputation, correctly or incorrectly, as being unusually dishonest.

If Democrats did not have an edge on the honesty front I wouldn't like them, but what I like doesn't seem to correlate with how the nation votes.

The idea that the media will someday treat flat lying as a disqualifying trait is a fantasy. They have had ample opportunity.

Perhaps we are like Charlie Chaplin, making silent movies into the 1930s. Or a football team that simply refused to accept the innovation of the forward pass.

I am not saying that Democrats should be nihilistic flat liars. I am asking whether not being so is a practical political handicap.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Between the two parties? Absolutely!!!

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This season, every talking point from the Romney camp seems to be an outright lie!

I think that they got away with "Death Panels" four years ago emboldened them.