You must not give false evidence against your fellow. (Deut. 5:20)
Surprisingly, from a political party and a campaign who claims the right to call God their exclusive own, and who claim to have a corner on the ubiquitous phrase “family values,” there is some sort of disconnect when it comes to the concepts of truth and falsehood.
I recall reading just yesterday from some unnamed journalist type who is a veteran of political campaigning something to this effect: “Politicians are well known for embellishing the facts and stretching the truth, taking things a bit out of context, and making things better or worse than they actually are. But this campaign of McCain’s is on a whole other level. Politicians usually don’t outright lie. This one does.”
Indeed, I have spent a fair amount of time in directing you, good reader, to various sites wherein political ads are dissected and the truth is laid before you. To an amazing and perhaps unprecedented extent, McCain is found to be out right lying on something like 75-80% of the time, while Obama may be said to be speaking an untruth, something less than 10% of the time. The rest are either entirely true, or half-truths on both sides.
What is more troublesome is that the McCain campaign is advised of these factual lies again and again, and continue to not only use the ads, but make more of them saying the same thing. This goes along with their repeated use of music from artists who have threatened legal action for the campaign’s failure to seek permission to use their work. It is almost as if the McCain minions simply thumb their noses at law and the facts.
At best it represents a cynicism that is dark and deep. I have spoken often of the sad state of affairs of the average voter. Most, sorry to say, are uninformed, and mostly don’t care. They rely on TV ads for their information, followed most closely by television media. So the fact that they are deliberately perpetrating falsehood is troubling to say the least. They are essentially banking on the fact that a good deal of the falsehoods will be taken as true.
There is nothing new in this. We are now quite clear that the Bush administration has engaged in a pattern of deliberate lying to us for years, about all kinds of issues. What is unprecedented is that no campaign has done it to the degree that Mr. McCain seems willing to.
Yet, Mr. McCain and his running mate call themselves Christians, and their “base” also consider themselves Christians as well. This therefore does raise a question: Just what kind of Christian condones and perpetrates this type of absolute lying and calls it right or fair? Are we in the realm of ends justifying means? Is this a part of “family values?”
It seems so, at least to me. While I have no personal finger to shake at Sarah Palin for the condition of her daughter, you would think that those Rush Limbaugh types, who are sooooo invested in family values and sooooo upset at all our secular ways would be outraged that a mother with such a pressing lack of success in teaching good values, would neglect her daughter to, of all things, become one of the “boys.” The very job is somewhat suspect wouldn’t it be? After all, part of all this family values stuff is recognizing that the world is divided into men and women and each has their place, and usually for women, that place is not where men work on important stuff.
Yet there is no hue and cry by the wingnutty right that Sarah should be home where she is needed by at least two of her children. And that is fine, I don’t quarrel with that, since I would of course find such a position outdated and ridiculous. And I even understand to a point why there is no fuss about the pregnancy. After all, we have learned that the fundie right uses failure in their ranks as proof that Satan is busy attacking just those people who are successfully speaking for God. I know that sounds absurd, but they do twist that around that way. They have done it to every televangelist and wayward Republican so far. Just evidence that they are hurting Satan, so he is fighting back and attacking their spokespersons.
But how do they justify their guy being such an abject liar? I mean geesh, that’s a direct violation of the Ten Commandments, a thing they find so important they picket and pray outside of buildings wherein said tablets have been removed. They use it as a battle cry for removing judges and replacing them with “strict constructionists” (meaning ones that think like me). So one would think that unless this is all a gimmick, they must believe in the tablets? eh? They should be trying to uphold them right?
So splain to me will ya why there is no outrage? Why is McCain allowed to put up lie upon lie like this? We are not allowed to even mention that Sarah dear lies up a storm about all kinds of things. She didn’t oppose the bridge to nowhere, until it was clear that everyone was now against it. Everyone is now in agreement about that. When asked why she continues to keep saying it, even though thoroughly discredited, the response is, because people like Sarah, and so they don’t care. As long as they don’t care, she will continue to lie, hoping of course that more folks believe it and never hear it is a lie.
Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin recently “co-wrote” an editorial about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, vowing that they were going to clean up the mess in Washington. This is all the fault of lobbyists they claim, and they are going to sweep them out of town. Really? Then how’s come Mr. McCain your chief of chiefs, in your campaign, Davis, is a former lobbyist for, yep, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Hows come, dear liar your campaign is chock full of them there lobbyists? Hows come you had to fire a bunch of ’em for doing business while still working for you, and why you finally ordered them to take leaves of absences in order to work for you. And that that isn’t really enforced at all anyway?
How come, Mr. McCain, in what is now being called the sleaziest ad ever made,you are trying to claim that Senator Obama wanted to teach sex education to kindergarten children when he was in the Illinois legislature? You know that’s a bald faced lie. Joe Klein wouldn’t even publish it or link to it on his main page, and says it’s another of those “apologies” you will make when this is all over.
The Democrats replied in honesty. After decrying the utter and complete falsehood of the ad, they finished with saying, “McCain a few days ago said he didn’t know how to define honor. Now we know why.”
So I wonder, is McCain just pretending to believe in Christian values? It seems so. But to be fair, these aren’t Christian values, they are human values. Everyone regardless of religion expects truth from those that SERVE THEM. Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin prove they are not entitled to serve this country. They are better suited to the Jerry Springer Show.
Existential Ennui 