“Promises , like pie crusts, are made to be broken.
–Vladimir Lenin
Every politician knows that the key to winning elections is to make great promises. Campaigners promise to cure the ills of society including taxes, war, government corruption, and pollution. Instead, if elected, they will bring about vast improvements in education, employment, infrastructure, and the economy.
In many ways, voters are the eternal optimists who can’t learn from experience. We want to believe that our politicians will improve our lives. But when post-election reality hits, we forget how unrealistic we were in believing that somehow “this time,” the outcome would be different.
Einstein is attributed with saying; “To do the same thing over and over and to expect different results is the definition of insanity.”
This tendency toward prevarication is not the exclusive territory of one particular political party or one “wing” of believers. “Progressive”; “Conservative”; “Republican”; “Democrat”; “Socialist”; “Libertarian”, no matter what the label or the point of view you can rest assured, if their talkin’, they’re lyin’.
A few historical examples:
1.Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the slogan “He kept us out of war,” only to enter World War I a year later.
2. Franklin Roosevelt’s adamant guarantee in 1940: “Your boys are not going to be sent to any foreign wars.”
3. With a nation weary of war, Harry S. Truman unconstitutionally sent US troops to fight in Korea without asking Congress for a declaration of war, based upon the UN declaration of a “police action” against North Korea.
4. Lyndon B. Johnson promised in 1964, “We are not about to send American boys 9- or 10-thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” During his presidency, the U.S. entered the Vietnam War and Johnson did not seek reelection.
5. Richard Nixon in 1968 claimed to “have a secret plan to end the war” and promised to find a way to “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but American troops were not withdrawn until 1973 — a little more than a year before Nixon resigned.
6. Jimmy Carter campaigned on solving the energy crisis, but the energy problem only worsened during his presidency.
7. George H. W. Bush famously promised in 1988: “Read my lips: No new taxes,” only to sign a bill raising taxes during his first and only term.
8. Bill Clinton campaigned on a renovation of the health care system before he took office in 1993. His attempted health care reform — “Hillarycare” — ended in failure.
9. George W. Bush ran for office on a platform of not “using our troops as nation builders,” a commitment he completely abandoned after 9/11, with profound and unintended consequences. He promised to “change the tone” in D.C., privatize social security and reduce government spending — none of which he accomplished.
10. Barack Obama: I promise to deliver “an unprecedented level of openness in government.”
– have drawn a zero-tolerance “red line” vow about chemical warfare in Syria.
-If you like your doctor you can keep you doctor.
-If you like your health plan you can keep your health plan.
Barack Obama campaigned famously and successfully on bringing “hope and change” to politics. Obama jokingly said, “Well, that didn’t work out did it.”
The jury is still out on Donald J. Trump but after 8 months the scorecard doesn’t look promising.
The reasons politicians lie is because the public doesn’t want to hear the truth. People want to hear what they want to hear and they don’t want to hear the truth.
“You can’t handle the truth”.
– Jack Nicholson -A Few Good Men-
Much to our detriment, with the complexity of society we have come to believe that we no longer have the ability to solve our own problems, that we lack the talent, the education or the understanding to face and solve the issues confronting us. So we look for a “champion”, a “leader”, a “white knight” who has the answers and will ease our pain.
Because we lack the confidence in ourselves to take personal responsibility for our lives and the lives of our families, we turn to politicians to do the “heavy lifting” for us. We fail to realize that if these politicians had the answers, the problems we face would have been solved long ago.
Unfortunately, we as a body politic have come to look upon the following as useful political discourse…
THE DEEP STATE: Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember, that nothing is true. Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember, everything is permitted.
WITHDRAW CONSENT