Republicans count on the public's misguided preconceptions to get away with many of their policies, particularly about the economy, but also in terms of American culture.  

Some are so obvious that they shouldn't need repeating.  But most Americans don't know and don't want to know about our history.  They fall for nonsense and end up voting against their self-interest.

Most recently, Republicans have had some success labeling Joe Biden and Democrats as socialists, communists, and radical leftists. In fact, there are very few radicals in the party. Bernie Sanders’ views aren’t dissimilar in principle from those of Richard Nixon.

The Republican’s scam is simply a Big Lie, a resurrection of their old accusations that Democrats are for Communism, Civil Rights, and Crime. No one with brains falls for this nonsense.

Of course, Donald Trump is in his own league when it comes to creating myths -- and having people believe them.  He came to political power by promoting lies about Barack Obama. He, his family, and his administration, traffic in some of the most absurd, vile conspiracy theories.

Republicans have long sought to make American distrust their own government. Trump has made them distrust the very idea of facts.

But there are a lot of people who just aren’t that smart. Democrats should fight this nonsense and work to bring back former Democrats who’ve been led astray.

Some other facts that many people don’t know:

1. Democrats, not Republicans, have been better on deficits in the past four decades than Republicans.

2. Democrats created Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and the public health and safety conventions that Americans today take for granted.  Democrats were behind the legislation that created the public works projects -- our bridges, tunnels, railroads, roads, airports -- that form the backbone of America's infrastructure.  And, of course, the internet.

3.  Democrats electrified much of rural America.  

4. Republicans often take credit as being the non-racist party, and indeed there was a time when that was so.  But not for at least 60 years.  In fact, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush employed racial tropes to get themselves elected.

5. Democrats don’t want to take your guns. Some do want to regulate their unchecked proliferation. Analogies to Hitler are specious. The argument that we needs guns to protect ourselves against American military forces has been disproven by gun advocates who’ve encouraged the use of police and military forces against civilians -- and indeed who have threatened Civil War.

6. Lowering taxes stimulates the economy.  There may be some truth to this, but it's much more nuanced than its proponents will ever say.  It's true that lowering taxes often increases the wealthy of the wealthy.  Ronald Reagan's tax cuts seemed to have some stimulative effect. But it dramatically increased income inequality and the government’s deficitis.

In fact, there's little evidence that trickle-down economics is anything but a scam to make the rich richer and the poor stupider.  

Back in the golden age of the 1950s, the top tax rate of the country was 90%, and the country was doing fine, our economy was the strongest in the world and we had the money to build up our military and provide for our people.  We had prosperity.  Growth. And hope.

In Kansas and other states that have experimented with lower tax rates, the results have been economically disastrous.

7. Climate Change — This should be a no-brainer, but that doesn't stop the deniers.  Even if the scientific community is somehow wrong, why would anyone choose to burn dirty, finite fossil fuels when there are cheaper, cleaner technologies available?  Follow the money -- 97% of all campaign contributions go to Republicans. It’s no wonder they want to end governmental regulations — even by the states — to protect the planet.

It’s true that regions have their own unique economic concerns. At this time, there is no viable replacement for large, central power plants, usually powered by fossil fuels. Home heating will require fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. Funding is simply not available for the necessarily investment it would take in mass transit to replace most personal vehicles.

And fracking, oil and gas exploration, and even coal are still economic drivers in many areas of the country.

But: None of this mitigates against the need to control carbon dioxide emissions and move to clean, renewable sources of energy. Only a fool or a Republican would argue otherwise.

Here are a few more myths that Republicans promote:

Inheritance Taxes hurt ordinary Americans. 

Democrats put illegal immigrants ahead of veterans’ and hard-working Americans.

Donald Trump is authentic; he tells it like it is.

The stock market represents the economy, and the economy has never been better.

Melania is the classiest first lady we’ve ever had.