According to every poll on the topic, the level of trust we Americans have for our elected officials is abysmally low – somewhere in the neighborhood of 11% for our congress people. We’ve been fed a steady diet of lies and misleading information for so long that the truth is hard to identify and we don’t know if we can trust anyone.
The dishonesty spans the entire imagination: from the WMD’s that never were in Iraq to Senator Larry “Wide Stance” Craig in the Minneapolis airport; from adulterer Governor Mark Sanford, who never was on the Appalachian trail to Senator Chuck Grassley, who tried to play you for a fool by telling you that they’re going to pull the plug on Granny; from Senator John McCain, pressed from the far right in a primary and declaring that he never said he was a maverick, to the holier-than-thou hypocrites, like the gay bashers who turn out to be gay. The list of lies, misleading statements and outrageous claims never ends, especially in this poisonous climate of fear that has gripped the nation. Just knowing about that fear is your starting point for determining who to trust and how to vote.
Listen to what candidates are saying as they try to win your vote. If they are trying to make you afraid of something – anything – that’s your clue that they are attempting to manipulate you and it’s probably being done with dishonesty. Of course, there really are things going on in the world that are frightening, but candidates using those things or the lies they invent in order to scare you is their way of telling you that they really have nothing to offer – no new ideas and no real leadership. All they have is the sales tactic called “scare ‘em and save ‘em,” which they are using to try to gain power for themselves. For the manipulators, it’s all about themselves – it’s not about you and it’s not about America.
So listen for the appeal to fear. Then run, do not walk, away from that candidate. Your future and that of your children and grandchildren is too important to leave in the hands of manipulators and liars.
Copyright 2024 by Jack Altschuler
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