The Lies Have Won

By TRB

Lying used to be wrong. Lying by government was even sometimes prosecuted. There was a movie made several years back about a fictional nation in which every citizen always told the truth - until one citizen figured out the he could lie at will and get away with it. We are almost in a reverse situation now - a nation where everyone lies.The difference is that no one of any real stature has discovered how to tell the truth.

Our government runs on lie, lies and bribes, and the hiring of favorite relatives and the money under the table for allowing that paper company to be built that far upstream. The lie that we need to continue giving a ridiculous tax cut to the wealthy because they will invest it or hire someone. They don't do either. They put it away. Or invest it overseas..

There is the lie of the tough choices, everyone will have to make; the choice to tighten their belts. Children will have to go without breakfast programs. Heating payment reductions for the poor will have to be scrapped.. Social Security and Medicare have to be slashed. Another lie. First off, the SS money actually does belong quite literally to the people. The other lie is that it doesn't exist. It does. The Congress would rather spend it on something else.

And now a popular poll is released showing that 51 percent registered Republicans believe that President Obama was not born in the United States. Despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary, these Republicans don't believe it. Or they don't want to believe it. Which is the same as lying - except this time to yourself. And no one does that better than the Republicans.

More than 30 percent of registered Republicans still believe Obama is a Muslim. It is about time those in the news media said, We don't believe you when you say you don't believe it. And if this doesn't sound like a crazy enough journalistic response to the lies that infect every part of our days, then perhaps you can tell us why former Defense Dept. Chief Donald Rumsfeld recently released a book trying to defend the outright lies that led to the Iraq War?

Are we ever going to stop lying to ourselves about the approximately 100,000 Iraqi civilians we murdered there for no reason whatsoever, or the nuclear arms lie that led us there, that caused all that bloodshed? Of course we can't stop lying about that - not unless we are willing to hold war crimes trials for some of our highest officials, and perhaps even execute them should they be found guilty. That is exactly what the U.S. has done to other nations that have been responsible for crimes like these in the past.

But it is unthinkbale isn't it? It is unthinkable that the U.S.should be held responsible for the murder of all those men, women and children? It is unthinkable because lying comes easy for us. Indeed our entire political culture is based on the lie that the U.S. has a representative demorcracy.

When even the easiest mark knows that money speaks much louder and commands more respect in this land of "free speech."