Friday Ramblings: Are politicians nothing more than crooks and liars?

Each night I call my mother and we talk about a variety of different subjects.  From the weather to politics, everything is on the table.  Yesterday the topic of our conversation was about the current state of affairs in Washington and where we both thought the country was heading.  My mother has very real concerns about the state of Medicare.  She has advanced renal cancer and treatment is not cheap.  She understands that Medicare needs to be reformed but she is having a hard time sifting through the rhetoric to determine which side is telling the truth.  She hears the Democrats say the Republicans want to throw grandma and grandpa off a cliff because they want to cut Medicare.  She hears Republicans say that Medicare is going to go bankrupt in the next few years if something isn’t done.  She said someone is not telling the truth.  Ding…ding…ding, we’ve got a winner.  My mother is correct; someone isn’t telling the truth in this instance.

I decide to play a little word association game with her.  I asked her to tell me the first thing that comes to mind when I say politician.  Immediately she replied with crooks and liars.  She gave the response that probably eight out of ten people would give if asked the same question.  She had no idea that the Democrats already pushed grandma and grandpa off the cliff when they cut $500 billion from Medicare in ObamaCare.  She asked my why the Democrats were saying this.  I replied because they’re politicians and as you said politicians they’re nothing but crooks and liars.

Now some of you might say that not all politicians are crooks and liars and you would be correct. However there are many politicians who have absolutely no problem lying if it means scoring political points or scaring the crap out of people to advance their agenda.  We’ve heard a flurry of lies from the Democrat side of the aisle these past four months.  America is going to default if we don’t raise the debt ceiling…LIE.  Paul Ryan’s budget pushes grandma and grandpa over the cliff…LIE.  It doesn’t touch Medicare for anyone over 55.  Social Security checks might not being mailed out if the debt ceiling isn’t raised…LIE.  Law requires these checks to be mailed out.  So clearly the left has no problem lying if it advances their agenda.  I’m sure the left can and will say the same about the right, starting with the Iraq war.  The truth is both sides tell their constituents the things they want to hear and they’re not always truthful.  They will tell you just about anything if it means winning your vote.  Perhaps this is why nothing gets done in Washington.  Because when they get to Washington the truth becomes an evasive thing.

The second question, are politicians crooks?  Let me ask you this question.  If you had an uncle or a cousin that said to you that I’m going to take a portion of your paycheck without your permission and invest it into a program that guarantees a minimal return in your retirement years and you find out they know that this money is not going to be set aside for you, instead it’s going to pay for investment returns coming due would you approve?  I hope not because this is called a ponzi scheme and people in the private sector go to jail for it.  They are labeled as crooks.  Now you tell me what the difference is between what I described above and social security.  Not much. The only difference is the social security ponzi scheme legal.  So I guess we can say that they are crooks in regards to this.  I’m sure we can find many more examples but this seems to work to get my point across.

The reason things never change in Washington is because we continue to reelect these crooks and liars and send them to Washington.  And what’s really sad is deep down we know they’re lying to us and stealing from us and yet we continue to send them back.  Why?  I ask myself this question again and again and the only answer I can come up with is deep down many people are afraid of changing the status quo.  Changing the status quo is a scary thing.  Injecting integrity into a system to set things right is way too radical for DC these days.  Even though we know these politicians steal from us and lie to us, the notion of sending a person with integrity to DC is hard to grasp.  I believe many people would rather live in ignorance because that’s the easy path.

Think about this when you’re listening to the candidates desiring your vote in 2012.  Which candidates are telling you the truth and which are telling you what you want to hear?

Liberty forever, freedom for all!