Truthfulness has never been counted among the political virtues, and lies have always been regarded as justifiable tools in political dealings.
Whoever reflects on these matters can only be surprised by how little attention has been paid, in our tradition of philosophical and political thought, to their significance, on the one hand for the nature of action and, on the other, for the nature of our ability to deny in thought and word whatever happens to be the case.
September 27, The Washington Post offered an example of a politician lying to gain or hoping to gain a personal advantage:
Vance has said watching the former president enact his populist agenda for left-behind Americans transformed him from a “Never Trump” conservative in 2016 to a Trump supporter in 2020.
But Vance privately expressed a very different verdict on Trump as the former president’s first term was nearing its end, previously unreported messages obtained by The Washington Post show.
In the direct messages — sent during Trump’s final year in office to an acquaintance over the social media platform then known as Twitter — Vance harshly criticized his future running mate’s record of governance and said Trump had not fulfilled his economic agenda.
Categories: Ethics
in-sights.ca 
Public figures, particularly elected officials, should be docked a week’s pay and have their terms shortened by a week, for each demonstrable prevarication they utter, including unfulfilled campaign promises. This would mean that some of our prize leaders would be out of office before the actual ballot, and, in some cases, that there might be no eligible candidates left on the ballot on election day.
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Politicians are almost expected to lie .
The lies and obfuscations of politicians confuse well meaning voters who are left to eek out a soundbite with which to align themselves with this or that political party.
TB
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I believe lying as a tactic to gain advantage has been around as long as speech, and likely before that in the form of signing. Imbedded in our DNA as a basic instinct survival tool.
Civilized societies and religions over time came to frown on the tactic to varying degrees but instincts are difficult, if not impossible, to repress. So the trait lingers, because it works, and there have always been outstanding masters in the art.
Aristotle said, “To say of what is that it is not, or of what is not that it is, is false, while to say of what is that it is, and of what is not that it is not, is true”. To which an accomplished liar would answer, “So?”
Benjamin Franklin said, “Half the truth is often a great lie”. To which a modern day politician would think, “Exactly. But why go all the way to half? Ten percent or a grain is enough.”
My parents lied to me almost from my birth until the day I found out Santa Claus was not as advertised. But hey, the presents kept on coming every year, so I got over it. The Tooth Fairy lie was exposed about the same time my teeth stopped coming loose so no harm done there.
As “trailblazer2017” says, politicians are almost expected to lie. And Dan says if lying was a disqualifier, there might be no eligible candidates left on the ballot on election day. We have come to the point where politicians are essentially given a pass for lying. Instead we focus our anger on the electors on “the other side”. After all, they’re the ones stupid enough to believe the lies, right? Not us, of course. We’re sophisticated enough to spot the lies and bake the lying into our vote calculations.
The other guys? They’re dumb enough to still believe in the Tooth Fairy.
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The other guys? They’re dumb enough to still believe in the Tooth Fairy.
The tooth fairy is alive and well.
The tooth fairy lives in almost every political leaders debate, every church alter , every ‘customer care’ department and every ‘mission statement’!
Is there any wonder so many turn to the simplistic disinformation offered by the internet?
TB
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