As the mid-term elections approach, it is becoming more and more depressing to consider the extent to which Democrats find it expedient to lie to voters. Some of their campaign ads and other statements are so blatantly false that one can only wonder what goes on in the minds of those who make them. The statements we hear and read about, for example, on race and gender are outrageous.

The old Google Groups forum JournoList (2007-2010), created by Wise Boy a.k.a. Ezra Klein, foreshadowed how liberals would use race to attack those opposed to Barack Obama’s liberal agenda. During the 2008 presidential campaign, certain divisive and controversial statements came to light that were made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor in Chicago. In response to the controversy, Spencer Ackerman suggested on JournoList that liberals pick out one or two conservatives, didn’t matter who, and call them racists. Amazing.

Ackerman’s suggestion that liberals simply smear conservatives as racists, whether or not true, has been a staple of Democratic strategy since 2008. Rep. Charlie Rangel (yes, the tax evader is still in Congress) just three days ago compared Republicans to confederates of the Civil War era who “believe that slavery isn’t over” (see here). And two days ago, an increasingly desperate Sen. Mary Landrieu blamed racism for Obama’s unpopularity in Louisiana and the South (see here).

Not content to limit her smears to race, Landrieu also brought sexism into play, claiming that her reelection campaign is struggling because she is a woman. Landrieu’s claim is refuted by the fact that Louisiana voters have elected her to the U.S. Senate three times and elected yet another woman, Kathleen Blanco, to the governorship in 2004. The Indian ancestry of Louisiana’s current governor, Bobby Jindal, conveniently shows that the racist claim is also a lie.

Liberals often make their sexism allegations in the form of the claim that women only make 77% (or some similar number) of what men make for doing the same work (Obama pushed this point himself only a few days ago). But those who make the 77% claim know that this is only a raw number and that the pay gap disappears when other factors are taken into account. Women with the same education and work experience earn the same money as men doing the same job.

The raw pay gap is due to decisions that women make, relating to giving birth and raising children, which affects the extent to which women are continuously in the work force. We can see that liberals clearly understand this (e.g., Slate magazine) when they call for changes in the workplace to keep women at their jobs longer after having children and for men to take more time off. Liberals prefer to drag men down to achieve raw equality instead of recognizing the natural inclinations of human beings.

Candidates of both parties make a variety of questionable claims during their campaigns, but liberals’ claims seem especially egregious. Evidently, the Democrats’ theory is that some people don’t pay much attention to politics and will believe the most absurd claims about race and gender. And Democrats apparently have no compunction about telling the grossest lies, as long as they think it will win them votes. For them, expediency rules.

The lies about Republicans may work for some voters, but it seems the Democrats may have overdone it as many voters are finally getting tired of the nonsense. The Civil War and Jim Crow laws ended 150 and 50 years ago, respectfully. And the liberal Denver Post recently endorsed Cory Gardner, the Republican senatorial candidate in Colorado, and in the process slammed Democratic Sen. Mark Udall for his incessant “war on women” attacks on Gardner. It’s about time.