Lying in Politics
Paul Krugman's piece in the Times today argues that the Republican Party is "the party of stupid". By this, he means that:
"... know-nothingism - the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise - has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: 'Real men don't think things through.'"
Krugman's wrong, and what's going on is worse than stupid.
The election and governing strategies of Bush the Younger were / are predicated on a simple, stunning insight into American politics: The great mass of people are so uninformed that it is possible to lie to them without being caught.
By "caught", I don't mean that lies go undiscovered. The media, the mainstream and the blogs, do a pretty good job of ferreting out the truth in most cases. They dutifully report that, for example, offshore drilling won't affect gas prices, or that Iraq was not connected in any meaningful way to Al Qaeda. But their reporting doesn't matter. Why?
The media is fragmented, so that there is no one media institution capable of reaching a truly mass audience. We are functionally illiterate, reading fewer newspapers (with in-depth commentary) and playing more video-games and watching more movies, etc. The right wing has embarked on a long and successful campaign to discredit the media by arguing that it is biased in favor of the left. The list of theories goes on and on.
Whatever the reason, the media is no longer an effective watchdog. It can scream and yell about lies politicians tell, but we aren't listening. Maybe it has been like this all along, maybe not. But it seems to me that there was a tacit agreement for a long time among politicians of both parties to refrain from telling direct lies to the people. You could fib or stretch the truth, but you didn't lie about big things.
George Bush changed all of that. He rejected the tacit bargain and lied and got away with it. McCain and the rest of the Republicans have learned the lesson. Politics isn't a debate contest. The public isn't a tenure review committee or the editorial board of a scientific publication.
The American public is effectively asleep at the switch. Lying to us, unfortunately, seems to work. It's a sad, sad state of affairs. But, again unfortunately, we get the politics we deserve.
"... know-nothingism - the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there's something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise - has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party's de facto slogan has become: 'Real men don't think things through.'"
Krugman's wrong, and what's going on is worse than stupid.
The election and governing strategies of Bush the Younger were / are predicated on a simple, stunning insight into American politics: The great mass of people are so uninformed that it is possible to lie to them without being caught.
By "caught", I don't mean that lies go undiscovered. The media, the mainstream and the blogs, do a pretty good job of ferreting out the truth in most cases. They dutifully report that, for example, offshore drilling won't affect gas prices, or that Iraq was not connected in any meaningful way to Al Qaeda. But their reporting doesn't matter. Why?
The media is fragmented, so that there is no one media institution capable of reaching a truly mass audience. We are functionally illiterate, reading fewer newspapers (with in-depth commentary) and playing more video-games and watching more movies, etc. The right wing has embarked on a long and successful campaign to discredit the media by arguing that it is biased in favor of the left. The list of theories goes on and on.
Whatever the reason, the media is no longer an effective watchdog. It can scream and yell about lies politicians tell, but we aren't listening. Maybe it has been like this all along, maybe not. But it seems to me that there was a tacit agreement for a long time among politicians of both parties to refrain from telling direct lies to the people. You could fib or stretch the truth, but you didn't lie about big things.
George Bush changed all of that. He rejected the tacit bargain and lied and got away with it. McCain and the rest of the Republicans have learned the lesson. Politics isn't a debate contest. The public isn't a tenure review committee or the editorial board of a scientific publication.
The American public is effectively asleep at the switch. Lying to us, unfortunately, seems to work. It's a sad, sad state of affairs. But, again unfortunately, we get the politics we deserve.
Labels: lying, politics, Republicans
posted by Moses Kagan at
12:12 PM
1 Comments
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