No, no, not just the politicians you don’t like. I mean pretty much all of them – with a few rare exceptions. It’s like part of the political DNA.
This is one of the reasons Patrick Henry declared:
“Show me that age and country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.”
If you read my email newsletter – Monday Musings – you know it recently was the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon closing the so-called “gold window” and cutting the final tie between gold and the dollar.
Nixon delivered a national TV address to announce the move. In the first 1:18, he told two big whoppers.
First, Nixon promised the action would be temporary in order to “defend the dollar against the speculators.” Fifty years later, this “temporary” action remains in place. It just goes to prove that nothing is as permanent as a “temporary” government program, as Milton Friedman once said.
Second, Nixon said, “Let me lay to rest the bugaboo of what is called devaluation,” and he promised, “your dollar will be worth just as much as it is today.”
Well, not so much.
The dollar has lost more than 85 percent of its value since Nixon’s fateful decision. The purchasing power of a 1971 dollar is equal to about 15 cents today.
I could run down a whole litany of politician lies.
How about, “Read my lips, no new taxes!”
Or, “Mission accomplished.”
They even wrap the laws they pass in lies. Consider Obama’s “affordable” care act.
This leads me to a theory. It may be harsh, but I think it holds up.
Most (not all — but most) politicians are sociopaths.
Now, you might be thinking that’s a bit of hyperbole. But look at these characteristics of a sociopath and then tell me a lot of politicians don’t fit the bill.
I mean, if the shoe fits…
