It used to be that Americans expected their leaders to tell the truth. Okay, I should amend that and say that we expected our leaders would normally tell the truth. In addition, in the past there were serious consequences for a leader who got caught lying. Media outlets were also supposed to be honest in their reporting. Sure, there were newspapers like the National Enquirer that told us about alien visitations, but responsible news organizations tried to tell the truth. Somehow, that has mostly ended. Just look at where we are now:
1. During the Bush years, there was a non-stop outcry from the left that George Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Of course, there never was any proof that Bush had lied. Clearly, the intelligence was wrong, but that is far from the same thing as a lie. With the success of this line of attack, however, the left and the media (actually the same thing) kept going further and further towards the use of the big lie.
2. With the advent of Barack Obama as a serious candidate, the use of lying as a strategy got much more common. Just during the 2008 campaign, we know that Obama lied about his position on gay marriage. That much was admitted just last year. We also know that Obama's campaign lied about the Clintons being racists. Obama won in South Carolina just on the strength of that false claim. (I have no use for Bill Clinton, but to call him a racist is ridiculous. Still, it did not stop Obama and his people.)
3. After seeing how successful it was to call Clinton a racist, the Obama team decided to go whole hog and throw that term at everyone who disagreed with them. Opposition to Obamacare was racist. Opposition to the Stimulus or the structure of that bill was racist. All Republicans were racist. These phony charges had the effect of worsening race relations across the country. Some who were less informed believed the charges and became angry at those being labeled racist. Others who understood that these were all lies became angry at Obama and the Obamacrats for relying so heavily on lies as a political tactic. The sting of the word racist was lost for many people. For others, the decades of progress on racial issues in the USA went down the tubes.
4. In 2010, when the Tea Party appeared on the scene, the nation was falsely told by the Obamacrats that these folks were racist, sexist, dimwitted, homophobes who hated everyone not like them. None of that was true, but the false charges continued to fly. Opposition to high spending was designed not to prevent the bankruptcy of America, but only to harm the poor or so we were told by the Obamacrats.
5. Lies from the Oval Office became so common as the years went on that it was almost taken for granted that no one could trust anything Obama said. If you like your doctor, insurance plan, etc, you can keep it. Obamacare will save each family $2500 in reduced premiums per year. All those times that Obama claimed to find out about some scandal from the news media only to then promise a full investigation that somehow never materialized, You know the drill.
6. The use of lies spread from Obama though to others in the Democrat leadership. Harry Reid (never known for his integrity) decided to take to the Senate floor to tell the nation lies about Mitt Romney and his supposed failure to pay taxes. The media reported these lies but never tried to find out any basis that Reid had for his claims. There was no follow up when Romney released his tax returns. It was as if Reid's lies made no difference at all to the media.
7. Obama then spread the use of lies to foreign policy. He no longer just lied about his American opponents. Instead, he started telling lies about international relations. Look at the attack on Israel's Netanyahu for opposing Obama's actions on Iran. Obama did not engage in argument. Instead, we were treated to that old Obama standby: he had his people call Netanyahu a racist. When Assad in Syria violated Obama's redline on the use of chemical weapons, Obama pretended that nothing had happened. Only after 16 separate chemical attacks and the release of video showing the thousands of casualties resulting from those attacks did Obama finally admit what the world already knew: Syria had used chemical weapons and violated his redlines. That led to all sort of dithering by Obama, but ultimately he entered into an agreement with the Syrians and the Russians under which Syria was giving up chemical weapons -- or so we were told. This too was a lie. In the last three months, there have been at least 14 occasions in which Assad's Syrian forces have hit their opponents and civilians with attacks with chlorine gas (the same sort that was use so heavily in gas attacks during World War I). The White House has just stayed silent on all these attacks. Here the lie is not telling a falsehood but refusing to admit the truth.
8. Using lies is now spreading to Obama's whole political movement. Just in the last day, we have seen vicious attacks on a pizzeria in Indiana because the daughter of the owner said that while they would never deny service to anyone, they would not want to cater a gay wedding because it would violate their religious views. The truth is that the pizzeria was never asked to cater a gay wedding (who serves pizza at a wedding?). Nevertheless, the media and the left took this offhand remark and changed it into a restaurant that regularly refuses to serve gays. Then, they used the lie as an excuse to attack the place. As I write this, the pizzeria is shut down because of the number of death threats that the owners have received. So the lies from the immoral left lead to death threats from the deranged left and the end result is disaster for the people who own or frequent the pizzeria.
Do you remember when people quoted that "the truth shall set you free"? Not anymore. We now have a significant segment of society on the left which thinks that truth serves no purpose. For them, there is nothing like a good lie.
1. During the Bush years, there was a non-stop outcry from the left that George Bush had lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Of course, there never was any proof that Bush had lied. Clearly, the intelligence was wrong, but that is far from the same thing as a lie. With the success of this line of attack, however, the left and the media (actually the same thing) kept going further and further towards the use of the big lie.
2. With the advent of Barack Obama as a serious candidate, the use of lying as a strategy got much more common. Just during the 2008 campaign, we know that Obama lied about his position on gay marriage. That much was admitted just last year. We also know that Obama's campaign lied about the Clintons being racists. Obama won in South Carolina just on the strength of that false claim. (I have no use for Bill Clinton, but to call him a racist is ridiculous. Still, it did not stop Obama and his people.)
3. After seeing how successful it was to call Clinton a racist, the Obama team decided to go whole hog and throw that term at everyone who disagreed with them. Opposition to Obamacare was racist. Opposition to the Stimulus or the structure of that bill was racist. All Republicans were racist. These phony charges had the effect of worsening race relations across the country. Some who were less informed believed the charges and became angry at those being labeled racist. Others who understood that these were all lies became angry at Obama and the Obamacrats for relying so heavily on lies as a political tactic. The sting of the word racist was lost for many people. For others, the decades of progress on racial issues in the USA went down the tubes.
4. In 2010, when the Tea Party appeared on the scene, the nation was falsely told by the Obamacrats that these folks were racist, sexist, dimwitted, homophobes who hated everyone not like them. None of that was true, but the false charges continued to fly. Opposition to high spending was designed not to prevent the bankruptcy of America, but only to harm the poor or so we were told by the Obamacrats.
5. Lies from the Oval Office became so common as the years went on that it was almost taken for granted that no one could trust anything Obama said. If you like your doctor, insurance plan, etc, you can keep it. Obamacare will save each family $2500 in reduced premiums per year. All those times that Obama claimed to find out about some scandal from the news media only to then promise a full investigation that somehow never materialized, You know the drill.
6. The use of lies spread from Obama though to others in the Democrat leadership. Harry Reid (never known for his integrity) decided to take to the Senate floor to tell the nation lies about Mitt Romney and his supposed failure to pay taxes. The media reported these lies but never tried to find out any basis that Reid had for his claims. There was no follow up when Romney released his tax returns. It was as if Reid's lies made no difference at all to the media.
7. Obama then spread the use of lies to foreign policy. He no longer just lied about his American opponents. Instead, he started telling lies about international relations. Look at the attack on Israel's Netanyahu for opposing Obama's actions on Iran. Obama did not engage in argument. Instead, we were treated to that old Obama standby: he had his people call Netanyahu a racist. When Assad in Syria violated Obama's redline on the use of chemical weapons, Obama pretended that nothing had happened. Only after 16 separate chemical attacks and the release of video showing the thousands of casualties resulting from those attacks did Obama finally admit what the world already knew: Syria had used chemical weapons and violated his redlines. That led to all sort of dithering by Obama, but ultimately he entered into an agreement with the Syrians and the Russians under which Syria was giving up chemical weapons -- or so we were told. This too was a lie. In the last three months, there have been at least 14 occasions in which Assad's Syrian forces have hit their opponents and civilians with attacks with chlorine gas (the same sort that was use so heavily in gas attacks during World War I). The White House has just stayed silent on all these attacks. Here the lie is not telling a falsehood but refusing to admit the truth.
8. Using lies is now spreading to Obama's whole political movement. Just in the last day, we have seen vicious attacks on a pizzeria in Indiana because the daughter of the owner said that while they would never deny service to anyone, they would not want to cater a gay wedding because it would violate their religious views. The truth is that the pizzeria was never asked to cater a gay wedding (who serves pizza at a wedding?). Nevertheless, the media and the left took this offhand remark and changed it into a restaurant that regularly refuses to serve gays. Then, they used the lie as an excuse to attack the place. As I write this, the pizzeria is shut down because of the number of death threats that the owners have received. So the lies from the immoral left lead to death threats from the deranged left and the end result is disaster for the people who own or frequent the pizzeria.
Do you remember when people quoted that "the truth shall set you free"? Not anymore. We now have a significant segment of society on the left which thinks that truth serves no purpose. For them, there is nothing like a good lie.
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