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Why don’t we care? Americans are acutely aware that politicians lie to us. In a recent Gallup poll people were asked to rate professions on their honesty and ethical standards. Members of Congress ranked 20th out of 22. Only 9% of those polled rated them high, or very high. They eked out car salespeople by 1 point, and lobbyists by 4 points. Car salespeople should be disappointed, and politicians ashamed. (Local officeholders fared better. They ranked 11th). It is a sad state of affairs when comedians routinely make jokes about lying politicians and instead of being outraged, we laugh. We are entering the biannual political lying season. The runup to elections is the only time politicians actually care about us. We are about to choose who will represent us for the next 2, 4, or 6, years. Think of it as a sort of fishing season for politicians. There are a few differences in politicians and fishermen. First, fishermen have to pay for a license that gives them the opportunity to catch fish, then tell their stories. Politicians tell stories while requesting donations from those they lie to, to pay for their license. (Imagine fish gathering bait to give to the fishermen). Second, fishermen have little to gain by telling their stories. Depending on the office they seek, politicians may have a lot to gain. Finally, nobody gets hurt when fishermen tell their tall tales. Over the years, millions of Americans have been harmed, some killed, when politicians lied. Fishermen are often called the world’s biggest liars. If measured by sheer volume that might be true. When measured by the impact on people, fishermen don’t come close.

To be fair, not every politician is a liar. There are a lot of good people who are elected to represent us in D.C. There aren’t enough of them, and the longer they stay in office the more they tend to forget why they ran in the first place. If we are honest we’d have to admit that we encourage their abysmal behavior when we continue to reelect them, in spite of their dishonesty. Let’s look at two imaginary candidates running for the same office. They are each asked to give a short campaign speech to a group of undecided voters. The first person says that if elected he will reduce the age to receive full Social Security benefits to 60. He will provide free college education to all, and forgive existing college debt. He will move the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour. He will provide Christmas presents, Easter eggs, and will reimburse the Tooth Fairy for all costs in the future. The second candidate says that the U.S. is in serious financial trouble. The government must reduce debt, and cut spending. She explains that Social Security is going broke. To protect it for current, and future, retirees we must raise the age to receive full retirement benefits to 70. She agrees that college is too expensive. She says that universities must begin justifying the fact that their costs have risen faster than inflation for over a decade. She believes that college debt is an obligation that people accepted of their own free will. That it is their responsibility to repay said debt. Because she believes in capitalism, employers should be allowed to set the wages for employees. She says that Christmas presents, Easter eggs, and all monies left by the Tooth Fairy, will remain the responsibility of parents. By the time the press is done praising the first, and panning the second, which do you think would be elected? We live in a society that is becoming more aware of its perceived rights, and less interested in its known responsibilities. JFK’s famous quote: “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country”, would today get him drummed out of the Democrat party. We seem eager to give up our freedoms in order to receive more free stuff from the government. The attitude of entitlement drives us to the first candidate. The first candidate is winning more elections today. More people are voting for the first candidate, even though most of us know his promises will not be fulfilled. We know, for the good of our country, we should vote for the second candidate. We continue rewarding the liars.

There is another reason this political charade continues to work. Whether we get angry by politician’s lies depends on who is telling them. Because we so love our ‘side’ we are willing to overlook its lies while exaggerating the lies of the other side. Now that Biden is in office the Right is apoplectic about his terrible lies. The Left defends Biden’s lies by reminding us of the unforgiveable lies told by Trump. And so the dance goes on. What the hell is wrong with us? They are both liars. And we, the American people, are the seemingly witless victims of the lies of both parties! When are we going to stop this insanity? When are we going to cast aside our ideologies and demand an end to the constant lying? The dishonesty of the political elites is crippling our nation. It is driving a wedge between Americans. It is creating a dangerous situation in which our allies are hesitant to trust us. Because our words and our actions have been divergent on too may issues, allies are choosing to remain neutral far longer than before. Their hesitancy can be life threatening in some situations. The greatest nation on earth is like a ship at sea without a rudder.

It is honest to say that Biden is doing serious damage to our country. It is dishonest to claim that everything was great before he took office. We have been ceding our freedoms to the federal government for many, many years. We continue to reelect people who are dishonest. We reward people who put their party ahead of their constituents, and their country. As we reelect representatives they gain seniority which elevates them to leadership positions in Congress. That allows them to gain a stranglehold on the government. This nonsense must stop. Many of our Founding Fathers were insistent that our Republican form of government could only work as long as the American people remained educated, and engaged. Government is actively working to keep our kids from getting the Civics, and U.S. History, education needed to be effective adults. We are doing a lousy job of educating workers. We are failing miserably at educating citizens. Until very recently we have been almost completely unaware of what government is doing. That must stop. We have to engage our elected officials. They must be told, with letters, emails, and phone calls, how we feel about important legislation. We must always know how they voted on important bills. When they vote different than they promised we must show up in large numbers, and confront them, at town hall meetings. If they continue to lie we must throw them out of office. Let the comedians tell jokes about that. Then it will be okay for us to laugh. Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you found it interesting please tell your friends. Thank you, Bob