Dear Dirty America

MICHAEL J BLAIR
Perthshire, Scotland 

I know politicians have always been “economical” with the truth, but in the last few years, this has apparently become the norm.

But there is nothing normal about lying on every subject and question. Unfortunately, it has become second nature for them to lie.

Has the time now come for the media to call them liars to their faces?

How refreshing would it be, if when a politician is heard blatantly not being honest, the interviewer says directly, “You, politician, are lying about this subject! If you cannot tell me the truth, this interview is terminated!”

I can just see the look of sheer panic and terror on their faces, as they try to find a way out without looking stupid. I don’t think that would be possible.

At every political press conference, or for that matter, any press conference, the smell of smouldering cloth hangs in the air. Yes, their pants are definitely on fire. No one can tell the truth.

Sports team management and coaches are just as bad as politicians. Difficult to believe, but how many times are they asked about a player’s fitness and how many times is a straight answer given? Bloody rarely, if at all.

They must be using the same lying teachers as the politicians.

At what point did we the public become numb to lying public figures?

I know lying wasn’t invented recently, but the acceptance of lying seems to be a new phenomenon.

Thinking back several decades, I seem to remember the public and newspapers being horrified by any politician caught lying.

These people who were in that situation, usually did the “right” thing, and resigned. But of course if they hadn’t been found out, they would have continued to lie.

One example being the Profumo scandal, in which a top politician resigned over an affair with a “call girl” which could have led to John Profumo being blackmailed by the Soviet Union.

When the truth came out he resigned immediately and spent the rest of his life doing charitable work.

Fast forward to more modern sex “scandals” and the case of the MP and influential committee chair, Keith Vaz. This slimy creature was caught using Rumanian “rent boys” and also using drugs. This was front page headlines and wall to wall news media coverage.

Did Mr Vaz resign? Was he kicked out by the Labour party? Was he humiliated? Was he charged by the police? Was he prosecuted?

No, none of the above happened.

He kept his job. He showed no remorse. He continues to slide around Westminster, looking down his nose at the “little” people, who, had they done what he had done, would have been in a shit load of trouble.

These examples of how politicians react to being found out doing something similar, show where society has changed over fifty years. Honour is definitely in short supply in this day and age.

So back to why we seem to accept lying as some kind of occupational kink politicians are prone to having.

Somehow, the lying of these odious creatures has become so prevalent, we are no longer shocked by anything they get up to.

That’s fine and dandy, but if we can’t trust anything any public figure has to say, then society is doomed to mediocrity, and the public will get the politicians they deserve.

Having followed the walking disaster which is the Trump presidency, I am appalled by his insane lies. Even when faced with the truth, he and his idiot spokespeople, continue to lie. This clown has taken lying to heights, or maybe more accurately, depths of which we have never encountered in any public figure of the last thousand years.

It is almost as if he has no capacity for reality. He believes what he wants to believe, and nothing will change his tiny mind.

One of the most worrying aspects of Trump’s constant lying is that his supporters swallow every lie, as if it is the truth. How can that be possible?

How can adults, when faced with something irrefutable, dismiss it because they would rather believe a blatant lie told by Donald Trump?

This was also the case prior to the Iraq invasion after 9/11. People believed the lies told to them about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, by Tony Blair and George W Bush. Some people still believe that lie despite seeing the proof that Iraq had no weapons of that kind.

Absolutely mind boggling!

If politicians and other public figures know the public have accepted lying, then they will continue to do so.

If nothing is done to halt this behaviour, then society and democracy is finished.

This hasn’t happened by accident.

Follow The Party of Common Sense on Twitter, at @tpocs

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[header photo courtesy of Paul Morse; Wikimedia Commons public domain]