Political Fictions

One of the problems with an election season is that people from politicians to pundits stop saying what they think on public issues and begin only saying what they think other people ought to hear.

Some people (Donald Trump) will say bizarre things because they have TV shows to sell. Most settle into an unsettling mix of pablum and slander - not saying anything controversial (or even understandable) while simultaneously accusing your opponent of fucking sheep in a Mexican brothel. They honestly believe that honesty is a losing proposition on the theory that if they don't lie grandly the other guy's grand lies will win.

It becomes impossible to pick out the tiny nuggets of truth from all the regurgitated mendacity. It has always been so.

Compare text from the 1864 pamphlet "Abraham Africanus I"

I hereby pledge to elevate Abraham Lincoln to a life Presidency of the United States of America, and to stand by him and assist him to subvert the liberties of the American people and debauch their civic aspirations

to today's politics, an article about David Horowitz.

President Barack Obama is the most dangerous president of modern times, intent on turning the country into a second-rate power because “he basically despises America,”

As I get older I lose more and more the patience to pick through the absurd lies.