Strike the Ninth

Trey Smith

Unlike the Bush administration, which at least coupled its refusal to apologize with post-facto spin purporting to explain what happened (“the intelligence was wrong!”), Obama has set a standard whereby politicians today will simply lie without bothering to offer a justification — even a far-fetched or dishonest one — for their dishonesty. This is a president who explicitly promised to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, respect Congress’ constitutional power to declare war, renegotiate NAFTA and end warrantless wiretaps — a president who said he was “tired of watching as year after year, candidates offer up detailed healthcare plans with great fanfare and promise only to see them crushed under the weight of Washington politics and drug and insurance lobbying once the campaign is over.”

This same president, of course, has kept Gitmo open, scoffed at the War Powers Act, refused to re-open negotiations over NAFTA, continues warrantless wiretaps and worked closely with lobbyists to craft a healthcare bill that has ended up being a financial boon to the drug and insurance industries — all while the healthcare crisis gets worse for average Americans. Importantly, in each of these reversals (which are only a few among many), Obama hasn’t even offered up a rationale — not even a “Look, I just changed my mind.” Instead, he’s either ridiculed the notion of expecting him to be honest (“This is fun for the press to try to stir up whatever quotes were generated during the course of the campaign”), or said nothing at all.
~ from The Rise of the Political Lie by David Sirota ~

I am sure many of you are thinking right now, "Ho hum, politicians lie -- like that's some kind of revelation?" Sirota's point is NOT that lying in the political arena is anything new; it has far more to do with the fact it has become so brazen.

One would think -- since almost ever word a politician writes or says these days is recorded in one way or another -- that it would become more difficult for any politician to think that they could get away with "bearing false witness." But, as Sirota points out, this doesn't seem to be the case at all!

Another reason politicians today can lie with impunity is the fragmentation of communication itself.

It seems counterintuitive that political lying would become even more pronounced in the age of 24/7 news, YouTube, Facebook and partisan media outlets pushing out ideologically advantageous content — that is, the age in which every public statement is being meticulously documented, archived and weaponized. But for all the hype about “going viral,” political content today tends only to do so within its own ideologically isolated bubble, which lessens the electoral consequences — and deterrent effect — of getting caught.

Sure, Santorum’s “blah people” lie and Romney’s incessant flip-flopping will be harangued on MSNBC — but Santorum knows MSNBC’s audience was never going to vote for him anyway, and he knows the GOP primary voters he’s courting will almost certainly never see the dishonesty, because they are ensconced in a wholly separate media bubble that will effectively censor it.

Likewise, Obama’s lies will be endless fodder for Fox News, but he knows many liberals will never hear about them because they live only in an MSNBC bubble — one that isn’t all that interested in objectively scrutinizing his record. And both of them bet that the Silent Majority — the millions of non-political junkie voters who actually decide elections — remain in the dark, either not hearing about the lies at all, or viewing them as innocuous background noise.

In this year's presidential race (it's been the same for years), a lot is being made out of the fact that all of the chief candidates are Christians of one variety or another. The GOP candidates, in particular, have jockeyed amongst themselves to show they are more true to their Christian beliefs than the others.

The ninth Commandment concerns the issue of lying (saying things one knows are not true). It has become rather obvious to me that I must have missed the memo that crossed it off the list. How else can we explain that all of these so-called Christian candidates spew lies left and right?