Lies, damn lies, and George Bush
The rest of the country is beginning to catch on to what the peace movement saw a year ago: that the Bush administration is willing to say anything, no matter how blatantly untrue, to bolster its position.Senior Editor Jonathan Alter, writing in the March 29 issue of Newsweek ("The Smell of a Real Scandal"), "The whole world knows we 'got taken for a ride,' as the President of Poland says, on Iraq."
As Alter says,
"Now, it's fine to point this out, but the Democrats are in danger of losing perspective on mendacity in the Bush administration, crying wolf so often that voters stop noticing the real abuses. That's what was wrong with John Kerry's off-mike comments about the Republicans' being a bunch of liars and crooks. To be believable, he has to go to real cases with real culprits, like the Big Medicare Con now coming to light."I'm surprised that I'm not hearing the name of Richard Nixon echoing through the media. It is Nixon's administration I associate with the experience of my jaw dropping to my chest as an administration official utters a lie so bald-faced that I begin to laugh, expecting that others can see the lie for what it is, only to look around me and find that no one else noticed.
As Alter rightly says, "The challenge for the Democrats is to resist the temptation to make their own phony claims, or to hype the usual petty distortions of politics into 'lies.' The truth is damaging enough."
Telling the truth will be a moment-to-moment challenge for Al Franken and his fellow "air Warriors" on the new liberal radio network, Air America. It's always tempting to embellish the truth when feelings come up. I think feelings tell us to lie, for different reasons. Fear tells me to lie if I've experienced reprisal for speaking the truth. Fear tells me to lie if I've been punished unjustly, or punished too violently, or punished in a way that made me feel ashamed of who I was in addition to what I had done. Shame tells me to lie so that it can hide who I am. Sadness tells me to lie if I've experienced a lack of love and come to believe that only lying will win love back. Anger tells me to lie if my boundaries have been invaded or thrown down and a lie is the only weapon I've got left.
It's vitally important that in this election year, the Democrats speak the absolute truth. If they grab the truth — no matter how fearful, shamed, sad or angry they feel — it can carry them all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
This page last updated 12/28/05. Contact me
