Dear Politicians, Why All The Lies? From The American Public
On the same night that Jon Stewart ended his 16 years on the Daily Show with a speech warning Americans to beware of the “bull***t,” 10 Republican presidential candidates gave us some of theirs.
The top 10 candidates running on the Republican ticket misquoted, twisted and misrepresented facts, but if you think they’re the only ones getting things wrong, then think again.
While Stewart warned Americans about the three different kinds of “bull***t,” the nation’s political leaders seem to be involved in all three.
“Then there’s the more pernicious bull***t. Your premeditated, institutional bull***t, designed to obscure and distract. Designed by whom? The bull***tocracy.”
In a country divided along racial lines, by class, between red and blue states, among city dwellers and country living, and between the East and West coasts not to mention between North and South, we don’t need more division.
Governing a country this large and powerful is difficult enough without our leaders misrepresenting their own positions and ideas.
“Whenever something’s been titled Freedom Family Fairness Health America, take a good long sniff. Chances are it’s been manufactured in a facility that may contain traces of bull***t.”
During the first Republican debate, the candidates declared that the American banking system was in crisis because of over-regulation. Donald Trump was much richer than he is and Jeb Bush cut taxes more than he actually did.
Other misstatements include the improved graduation rates under Bush, the slowly growing Ohio Medicaid program, strong Wisconsin economy, and record high U.S. school budgets. Also, Marco Rubio never advocated for exceptions to abortion bans, and Obamacare hasn’t robbed $700 billion from Medicare.
“We cannot take action on climate change until everyone in the world agrees gay-marriage vaccines won’t cause our children to marry goats, who are going to come for our guns.”
While the red banner-waving Republican party has to deal with their misquotes, the blue-tinged Democrat party has some missteps of their own.
The first #GOPdebate was more like a reality TV show, says theater critic @charlesmcnulty http://t.co/ap2f5xWhTx pic.twitter.com/6ZyDImYs3q
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 7, 2015
When Senator Harry Reid defended Planned Parenthood, saying the organization covers health care concerns for 30 percent of American women over 18, he was off by a factor of ten, the real number is three percent or 106 million women.
Meawhile, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has grossly exaggerated the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few.
Maybe we should all take a page from Jon Stewart.
“The best defense against bull***t is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.”
Photo by Mark Wilson/Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
