The Political Necessity of Lying
Posted on October 10, 2019 by Robert Ringer
As the crazed Democratic presidential candidates continue to ramp up their frantic efforts to outbid one another in the hopes of buying primary votes, I am reminded of an article in The New York Times titled “Who will tell the people?” written by Thomas Friedman, one of those rare liberals who occasionally displays a modicum of common sense.
In the article, Friedman shared his concerns about the field of candidates in the 2008 presidential election when he wrote, “We don’t need a president who is tough enough to withstand the lies of his opponents. We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.”
As I said at the time, “Lots of luck in finding someone.”
It’s not exactly a news flash to tell you that none of the psychopaths in the Democratic field of presidential candidates are tough enough — and certainly not honest enough — to tell the American people the truth. I don’t think anyone — either Republican or Democrat — believes that any of these sorry pretenders has a desire to “talk straight” to voters. As a group, they not only are the most mentally unstable slate of primary candidates ever to appear on a stage together, they are also the most corrupt and dishonest.
Friedman went on to say, “We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.” All of which sounds great, except for the fact that “work on our country” is a subjective phrase that means different things to different people.
All candidates like to talk about measures they believe will “work,” because it allows them to avoid being specific. Everything works, because all actions, whether good or bad, have consequences. But that doesn’t mean everyone likes or benefits from those consequences. Thus, the question is not whether something works, but whether we like the way it works.
Communism works, if your purpose is to enslave people. Stealing works (at least some of the time), if all you care about is money. Lying works, if you don’t care about your personal integrity. Literally anything, no matter how monstrously immoral, will work, depending on the outcome you’re after and how you define the term work.
For example, Ivanka Trump’s “paid family leave” works for people on the receiving end, but not so much for a childless couple who is forced to help foot the bill. Ditto with “free” college tuition, “forgiveness” of student debt, and healthcare for illegals. All of these Democratic proposals would work extremely well for those who receive the largesse, but not for those who pay for it and receive nothing in return.
In truth, they are just doublespeak terms used to obfuscate the fact that they are really just transfer-of-wealth programs. Politicians work hard to convince us that transfer-of-wealth programs are necessary because there is only a certain amount of wealth available and it’s needed to help close the “wealth gap.”
In other words, they rely on the ignorant and childish belief that the size of the world’s wealth pie is fixed, which is absolutely, positively untrue. The amount of wealth on our planet is limitless, because it’s directly tied to the ingenuity, resourcefulness, and hard work of individuals.
But the Dirty Dem presidential candidates will have none of this. In the name of “fairness,” they are promising to take a lot more of your “pie” and give it to those whom they believe are more worthy of it than you. In politically incorrect circles, this procedure is known as Marxism — and, as I said, it only works if the objective is to enslave people.
Which brings us back to Thomas Friedman’s question: Who will tell the people the truth? Answer: No one, because politicians, especially Democrat politicians, realize that you can’t get elected by being truthful. Candidates on both sides of the aisle are well aware that there is no constituency for cutting entitlements, but a very large constituency for increasing entitlements.
Result: Politicians dare not tell their constituents that entitlements are guaranteed to bankrupt the nation and, in the end, leave everyone worse off. And, to their shame, low-information constituents eagerly vote for the highest bidder, because they desperately want to believe that wealth without work is endlessly possible.
In a free country, of course, people have a right to go on believing whatever they want to believe, but the harsh reality is that Nature does not accept ignorance as an excuse for harboring false beliefs. It metes out negative consequences just as harshly to a person who is well-meaning but uninformed as to one who is well informed but malevolent.
Thus, no matter how much voters want to believe the something-for-nothing fairytale and no matter how good their intentions may be, violating the laws of Nature always ends badly. But don’t tell that to the Radical Left cheerleaders in the audience next Tuesday when the Dirty Dem clowndidates once again try to outbid each other in promising free everything in exchange for votes.
H.L. Mencken summed it up perfectly when he said, “An election is an advance auction of stolen goods.” I’ll end on that note, since there’s no way I can say it any better.
As far as the "free" goodies are concerned, everyday is an endless Merry Christmas from the Dirty Despicable Ds! Ho, ho, ho! They are all a bunch of despot Democchios who couldn't tell the truth if their life depended on it. And the Rs are not too far behind. The Rs might claim to be against this or that goody that the Dirty Despicable Ds are pushing, that is, "more lies", they also bring along their own sleigh full of "different lies" and broken promises. One of the biggest whoppers ever to come out of a politician's mouth, in my opinion, was made by Jimmy Carter's "I would never lie to you" and "if I every lie to you, make a false or misleading statement, avoid a controversial issue, or betray your trust,, then don't vote for me", the biggest whopper of all time, even bigger than the Whopper you buy at Burger King. Oh, don't worry Jimmy, even if you told the truth, I still would never vote for you regardless. The term "honest politician" is an oxymoron, just as the term "pretty ugly" is. Nowhere can one ever be found. Because they don't exist. It's a lie! Lying is the lifeblood and fuel that the Ds and Rs run on. Without this fuel, they're grounded, permanently put out of business, and soon gone and nowhere to be ever found or seen again. Honesty is political hari kari, instant political death! The current top winner for this 2020 campaign trophy for all-time lying is, none other than the great Pocahontas. Who else? She is claiming that the university she was teaching at had fired her for being pregnant. It turns out that the school had renewed her contract and she had voluntarily resigned from her position. Poor, pitiful her! Again, Pocanocchio, shame on you, liar, liar, pants on fire!
I've asked Bernie and Fauxcahontas via Twitter – both proponents of a universal minimum income AND medicare for all – what they personally are doing to fix the very real problem of the social security "trust fund" (another huge whopper of a lie that every pol has subscribed to since LBJ raped it to fund the Great Society) being broke by 2032. They both blocked me. Hmmm…… I guess, to paraphrase Jack Nicholson, neither of them can "handle the truth.."
The folks who will bite and believe in something for nothing entitlements will eventually realize that greed kills. They, in turn, lie to receive the entitlements. It will kill them in the form of integrity, freedom, and peace of mind. If they have no conscience it will show up in their soul and aura. A good hard working person will sense a lazy no good for nothing soul. This is why opposites do not attract in the area of views and values.
After hearing so many lies, I think the American public is ready for some truth.
I hope you're right. But I fear you are not. The desire to obtain "something for nothing" seems to be so powerful, that, once addicted to it, many seem wholly incapable of resisting. This is a reality that politicians discovered 1000s of years ago. (In fact, there may well be a physiological/genetic basis for this. In our hunter/gatherer past, there may have been survival value in this urge.)
The question remains, are there enough of us left? Can we resist the allure of the 'soma' offered to us?
The DJT movement…and it is a true movement…gives me reason to be hopeful. His tweets unpresidential? His comments inappropriate? Give me break! For those who believe this…let me give you my beliefs; (Oh…and…"please forgive me" if I offend you. I guess I didn't go to the same 'finishing school' as you!) Trump has made it 'OK again' to simply speak the unvarnished truth. (I like it. The truth has a certain ring to it.)
I'm really happy to see the #walkaway movement. You never hear much which tells me it's bigger than they D's want to believe. I also have read but not been able to verify that the voting rolls for D's are down. Unions are walking away because they get treated better by Trump than with people like Bernie who says they won't have bargaining ability in healthcare if he's president.
And I also laugh when people say he's not presidential. Would they rather have someone who acts the part but lies and destroys the economy and gets us and keeps us in endless wars?
Currently, I'm rereading Ayn Rand's, "Atlas Shrugged" ten to fifteen pages at a time before I pause and make some notes. In the end I still believe Ayn Rand, F.A. Hayak, Ludwig von Mises and other such high-information thinkers will be correct that collectivist America is on the road to serfdom one can-kick at a time.
Admittedly, it's been a long and winding road, this road to serfdom we are on, a lot longer than most of us thought; and a lot bigger of a road, too. It's more like a superhighway to serfdom with all of the habitual lying done by the political elites, their phony promises, endless spending, out of control bureaucracy, the counterfeit capitalism done by the Federal Reserve, racketeering done by Wall Street, insane wars done by The Military Industrial Complex and the fake manikins dressed up in suits who report the fake news 24/7 — all of them; including the Gotham City Public Schools and the Marxist Ivy League Universities; the super freaks of Hollywood; the mindless sports circus where men are paid hundreds of millions to play kids games; and on and on the bread, circus and warfare goes as we all travel down the broad and spacious road leading to destruction..
Even President Trump is no hero, albeit so much better than the rest of Washington Swamp Creatures. To me, Trump is just another larger than life character out of a modern version of Atlas Shrugged – and not somebody who's going to take Americans off from the Superhighway to Serfdom. Even Trump's personality – his very name – would fit one of Ayn Rand's fictional personalities. Only Trump is real. And the end of the road is near. And in this case truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Do we reach the end of the road with Trump at the wheel? This could be a spectacular crash and burn, indeed.
There shall be no happy ending, because empires never have happy endings.
Lols! I thought that was very witty and humorous about your mentioning Donald Trump as an Ayn Rand novel character. Never thought of that. You just might be right! If I were attending a Trump rally here in Cincinnati, I would uncontrolably laugh my head off during the whole rally and everyone would think I was crazy. I'm sure he is no John Galt. I thought maybe perhaps an Ellsworth Monkton Toohey from the Fountainhead. Lols! His name, Donald Trump, does sound like he would be an Ayn Rand novel character. Very good, Reality Seeker!
I'm a science fiction geek so if I may add another quote, "Robert A. Heinlein" (of Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Lazarus Long and the Cat Who Walks Through Walls fame) always said, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch," sometime abbreviated TANSTAAFL. Sure maybe some of these ideas may help some, if I may be Devil's Advocate, but they are a burden on others too. I do taxes part-time and I have seen people make out like bandits if they have kids and qualify for the income tax credit while poor, old me, a single, um, White guy is struggling paycheck to paycheck and is lucky I can afford to use a 1982 model TV to this day. As to student loans, I worked my butt off and even had my wages garnished for a while, but I did it, if they do that now, then what about me who did me right thing? Getting back to tax credit for children, we need to abolish that, I mean, what about the single man or woman who is a similar position as me? What about old people? What about those who choose not to have kids? The rest of us pay for it.
Unfortunately, Robert, you are wrong about some of the Democratic Candidates. Joe Biden, you're the most wrong about. Then Mayor Pete, Amy K., Beto, Tom Steyer, Cory Booker, Andrew Yang, and maybe Julian Castro. These candidates will restore our Democratic Republic, with Joe Biden being far and away the most qualified candidate we've seen in our lifetime to bring us back from the constitutional crisis we are currently facing. And from the denigrating shellacking we've been experiencing to our standing as a trusted ally internationally, since the onset of the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Reagan started our demise, when he said at his inaugural, "Government is not the solution. Government is the problem". That is ONLY true when you have a naive, totally unqualified President at the helm of the Executive Branch. Other than that, I am a fan of your books (especially "Looking out for #1, at least so far!).