Politicians will say or do anything for a vote. A lot of times they are paid from bigger companies behind the scenes to talk about things the political person might not believe but will do it for money because, money makes the world go round.
The political tool shed contains plenty of rusty old straws about lying politicians. There has always been a baseline of glad-handling insincerity in American electoral politics, which we appear to have accepted long ago as the nature of the beast.
Yet we confront today a situation wherein the lies and exaggerations politicians customary use to get themselves elected have been taken to an entirely new level: the arena of war and its justification.
Lies that get people killed are not white lies. They are big, dark ones. It is time to reconsider why our elected leaders so freely and easily lie to us. The reasons may have less to do with their character flaws than with our own.
Politicians, it may be argued, are survivalists first and foremost; they say what they must to cultivate and maintain their positions of power. Most elected officials are not pathological liars, as such person rarely attain rank in the complex social hierarchies of partisan politics. They are better understood as opportunistic liars- who will uncork a whooper occasionally, perhaps even unconsciously, in the service of some ulterior motive.
If we had our politicians to higher standards, they would have more incentive to be truthful. Yet it appears that just the opposite is true.
Politicians lie to us, and we love it . People love the drama. We eat it up like candy. They tell us everything we want to hear, and we adore them for it. In return for those “comfort lies, “ we give them our votes. Not many people will research facts, as they expect journalists to tell the facts. Leftists vs. Conservative. Even journalists lie as they are paid to do so.
We all like to live in a magical kingdom where roads get paved and wars get fought and nobody has to pay any taxes. So politicians tell us we can. We all would like to believe half-trilion-dollar federal deficits don’t really matter. So politicians tell us they don’t.
We all would like to believe global warming doesn’t really exists. So politicians tell us it doesn’t. We all ike to believe the oil will last forever. So politicians pretend that it will.
Politicians lie to use because we want them to lie to us. When the truth hurts, many Americans prefer to invest in a comforting lie. There will always be politicians eager to provide comforting lies to those who are eager to believe them.
Should we be surprised, then, to find ourselves readily, even eagerly, believing the cavalcade of comforting lies that pacified so many into supporting the historically unprecedented innovation of Iraq?
Truth isn’t appreciated.
We all remember the ominous lies. They were about weapons of mass destruction: anthrax, nerve gas, dirty bombs, mushroom clouds. But these are statements, crafted to instill fear and anxiety in the American public, were quickly followed gy soothing elixirs. The war would be quick and easy. The war would pay for itself. Casualties would be minimal. We would be welcomed as liberators. “Mission Accomplished.”
Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who served under former President Donald Trump, hammered his former boss this week when asked if Trump was fit to be President of the United States.
Barr made the remarks on Friday at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio when asked by journalist Geraldo Rivera about the former president.
.@GeraldoRivera: "Is Donald Trump to be president?"
Former Attorney General Bill Barr: "It is a horror show when he's left to his own devices...Trump will not deliver Trump policies. He will deliver chaos and if anything lead to a backlash..." pic.twitter.com/gsZzjsqO8D
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 5, 2023
“Is he fit to be President of the United States?” Rivera asked. “Is Donald Trump fit to be president?”
“Well, this is the way I’ll answer that Geraldo, which is, if you believe in his policies … he’s the last person who could actually execute them and achieve them,” Barr responded. “He does not have the discipline. He does not have the ability for strategic thinking and linear thinking or setting priorities or how to get things done in the system..”
“It is a horror show when he’s left to his own devices,” Barr continued. “And so you may want his policies, but Trump will not deliver Trump policies, he will deliver chaos, and if anything, lead to a backlash that will set his policies much further back than they otherwise would be.”
Barr, when he was working for Trump, did a lot of sucking up. So I say, once again, ALL politicians lie, always do your research, follow the money trail…
We need to stop rewarding politicians who spoon-feed us comforting lies. It is time we figured out how to appreciate th difference. Because the fault, lies not in our political stars, but in ourselves.
Note, I am neither republican or democrat. I am tired of the B.S. lies the media writes.
