The next four years may go down as America's era of "truthiness," the term coined in 2005 by comedian Stephen Colbert to describe the truth found in the level of certainty with which someone makes an argument or assertion without evidence, intellectual examination, logic or facts.
It is likely to define many of the pronouncements by President-elect Donald Trump, and it will certainly define the rhetoric many on the left will use in arguments against the man they so despise.
Though the New York businessman will not take office for two weeks, a snapshot of the next four years already has developed. Take just two issues that have come to the fore this week: the threatened repeal of Obamacare and the wall along the country's southern border that is supposed to be paid for by Mexico.
Trump, as did many other Republican presidential candidates, said he'd sign a repeal of the Affordable Care Act on his first day in office. Of course, it's not that easy. It can't be brushed away like last summer's mosquito with one signature.
No, the complications of the law will force an unwinding of sorts, and even the most anti-Obamacare conservatives don't want the millions who acquired health coverage under the law to be immediately stripped of protection.
So did Trump mean it? Of course he meant that unwinding the bloated and wildly expensive health program would be an early priority, but he knew it could not occur on Jan. 20.
Democrats, though, have spoken publicly and suggested their media allies write that the president-elect not only does want people to lose their coverage in one fell swoop but also has designs on ending Medicare. Witness the headline in the Nation: "Donald Trump Is Coming For Your Medicare." And the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump's New 'Health' Secretary Wants To Destroy Medicare."
If Obamacare is repealed and replaced by something better and less expensive by the end of Trump's term, America will be fortunate. Medicare, now 50 years old with tentacles wrapped solidly around the federal government, needs reform, something Congress and Trump may want to effect. Yet his transition website only makes scant mention of "modernizing" it. But the chances of the seniors health care program substantially changing in the next four years are practically nil.
The president-elect also said throughout his campaign that he would complete a wall along the country's southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Well before the election, Mexico said it would do no such thing.
Did Trump mean it? Of course he meant that he planned much more strict government enforcement of illegal immigrants, who had come across by the millions during the past eight years. He also said he would prioritize the deportation of criminal illegal immigrants. Since then his campaign has said a "wall" could be a combination of enforcement barriers and may only be 200 to 300 miles more of construction than what is already in place.
Indeed, he also could use legislation signed by President George W. Bush in 2006 that authorized building a double-layer secure wall along the border but was never built, in part because of the several billion-dollar cost.
Earlier this week, members of Trump's transition team made overtures to congressional Republican leaders that the border wall should be built through U.S. appropriations.
Aha, another broken promise, said Democrats. The president-elect said he would force Mexico to pay for the wall, and now he's going back on that.
But, no, Trump said via a tweet Friday, the U.S. will build the wall "for sake of speed," and the money "will be paid back by Mexico later."
"When you understand that Mexico's economy is dependent upon U.S. consumers, Donald Trump has all the cards he needs to play," U.S. Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a congressional liaison for the Trump transition team, told CNN's "New Day." "On the trade negotiation side, I don't think it's that difficult for Donald Trump to convince Mexico that it's in their best interest to reimburse us for building the wall."
If the flow of illegal immigrants comes to a halt during the next four years, and if Mexico winds up paying some expenses for the wall whether it be through trade, negotiations or cash, Trump voters will be ecstatic, and the American worker will be better off.
So, count on it that Democrats and their media allies will criticize practically everything the president-elect does for the next four years. Some of their words will be valid criticism, but most of it will be "truthiness."
Trump will continue to make promises of action and the methods in which he will carry out those promises. Some of his words he'll mean literally, and other parts will be "truthiness," meaning how things get done may not exactly match the way he said they would get done.
The era of "truthiness." We should get used to it.