Nothing owes its preciousness to rarity more than Truth.*
When I watched Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the late Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower, endorsing Barak Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver I was probably not he only one who was surprised. But then, her grandfather would have fit much better at the Democratic convention than he would have at the party of the Republican convention, a party that Eisenhower would probably not have recognized. Eisenhower was a heroic general, and a politician who supported unions, increasing taxes, and coined the term “military-industrial complex.” On today’s ideological continuum he would qualify as a “liberal.”
Things have changed in political ideology since the 1950s, mostly in a rightward shift. But something else has changed, a change that Susan Eisenhower did not directly refer to, but cannot be denied—the Republican Party has undergone a fundamental change, and much of that change has been a result of its unholy alliance with the Religious Right of America. The most deleterious outcome of that change has been a moral posture—born of righteousness—that the end justifies the means, and from that has come a practice of not telling the Truth.
There are reasons that wise political thinkers have tried to keep church and state in separation—religion is concerned primarily with belief, belief in what cannot be validated or proven; statecraft must be concerned with knowledge, that which can be tested, proven and validated with evidence. Belief is, in some sense, denial, a refusal to accept that ha which cannot be explained or known, has a “truth” that comes from “revelation” to certain anointed persons, such as prophets. To insist that God exists and has a plan for humankind is not a lie, per se, but it is manifestly a delusion, a belief in something that cannot be apprehended by the senses or the intellect. It is in the category of a fairytale.
Now, does this means that the credulous are more likely to be liars because they believe in the unknowable? Not necessarily; many people who believe in God are also scrupulously honest people. But, are people who believe in what is tantamount to a fairytale more likely to accept as unquestionable Truth, say that Iraqis flew he 911 planes, unproven existence of weapons of mass destruction, “mission accomplished,” that the surge (and not bribery of the Sunnis) accounts for diminished violence in Iraq, that “trickle down” tax cuts help the middle class, that Barrak Obama is a Muslim, that Sarah Palin never supported the “Bridge to Nowhere,” one could go on for hours?
My answer is a qualified “yes.” It is not so much that all these people actually believe the lies they are being told, but they want or need to believe versions of “reality” that are a variance with the truth. That is, their approach to politics is somewhat like their approach to metaphysics: they can’t prove that there is a God, or that angels and devils exist, but they much prefer that “truth” to the contraposition. The political right wing has found a very effective political formula that conflates religious belief and political belief. The so-called “values-voter” is essentially a “negative voter,” and voting against something is the strongest motivation for voter participation. The values-voter also fits better the concept of political conservatism, because they are more likely to believe that ”things used to be better” in society and society needs protection from any circumstances or ideas that would threaten the “status quo.”
Ultimately the values-voter must be willing to go without health care, have their job outsourced, have their home foreclosed, their sons shipped off to useless wars, but will turn out and vote for the political party responsible because they cannot abide a world in which gays can get married or women can decide for themselves what they want to do with their bodies. Theirs is a world in which their country has become regarded as the axis mundi —the place where there is a connection between Heaven and Earth, where a geographical connection exists that mirrors the conflation they have made between politics and religion. Indeed, the symbolic and linguistic connections are all about us: the fight to keep “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, for prayer in schools, the constant reference to “God’s country,” the wrapping of the flag around the crucifix, and the endless coddling and sucking up of politicians to religious authorities.
The values-voter is a committed soldier on the political battlefield because he/she believes with “certainty” that this life is merely preparation for an afterlife, and that secular “evils” must be avoided and eradicated, and that they are enjoined by a politico-religious obligation to build a nation, if not a world, that follows that righteous path. Politics and faith become fused for them, and the political party—often with great cynicism—that courts that commitment, can count on them to accept almost any worldly price for their “eternal salvation.” It is a model that fits the Taliban, Christian fundamentalists, ultra-orthodox Jews, and other theopathic faiths and cults equally.
That the re-emergence and growth of this denial and acceptance of lies and untruths has come about with such vehemence in the 21st century is frightening. It is a seeming rejection of the human advances that were made in the Renaissance and Enlightenment.
There is a line of dialogue in Stanley Kramer’s great movie, Judgment at Nuremburg, that has always stayed with me. At the end of the movie Spencer Tracey (Judge Dan Haywood) is asked to come to the cell of Burt Lancaster (Nazi Judge, Dr. Ernst Janning), a once renowned and respected jurist. Janning says to Haywood: “the reason I asked you to come… Those people… those millions of people… I never knew it would come to that. You must believe it.” Haywood responds: Herr Janning… it came to that the first time you sentenced a man to death… you knew to be innocent.”
Analogously, somewhat the same might be said for those who employ lies and deceits for political purpose. Those, who by spin,” omission, and outright commission of lies and deceptions, who have no respect for the truth, destroy the integrity of any political system. Lies and deception have always been a part of political competition and discourse; but the practice, with assistance of media and political operatives and lobbyists, has come to characterize the political process in America. The practice of telling and re-telling lies and un truths, combined with a substantial credulous polity that is inclined to believe what it wants to believe rather than exercise a skeptical demand for the facts and evidence, has produced a disastrous eight years of misguided militarism, a badly damaged economy with widened social disparities, and ignorance and denial of impending environmental catastrophe, and the ruined reputation of America around he world.
George Bush has been the most overtly and demonstrable religious president in this country’s history. He has also been its biggest and most consistent liar, both about his personal circumstances and in his public behavior. That it might seem inconsistent for a “religious” man to be such a consummate prevaricator should by now be explicable by not only his own credulity, but the fusion of religious righteousness and so-called “revealed” truth over “researched” truth in is administration. He has been a president by who by his own words “has no regrets” and does not change his mind. He compounds this distance from the truth by surrounding himself with sycophants and “yes” men.
Moreover, these practices appear to be a staple of American politics. Can there be any more arrogant and dangerous assertion than for someone to say that the war in Iraq is “part of God’s plan,” as Republican vice-president nominee confidently asserted not long ago to a church group. A person who might hold the kind of power as American head of state holds and to believe that they know what cannot be known, to know not what is the truth, but what is pure fabrication, is a delusional person of great danger.
The typical response one gets from Republicans when their politicians are caught in lies is that “all politicians lie.” That not true, and is only designed to put an end to the discussion. But lying sometimes catches up with you. Recently, John McCain was caught in a lie about Barrak Obama (alleging that Obama calls for “sex education in kindergarten”) in an interview. He was called on it. His response was that it was not a lie—deny the lie. Cindy McCain recently had to remove from her website a statement that said Mother Theresa has convinced her to adopt her children. Cindy McCain has never met Mother Theresa. This sort of thing can be contagious. In fairness, Hillary Clinton never did come under rifle fire in Bosnia.
It is no longer just politics; it is a war for our very reality.
____________________________________________________________
© 2008, James A Clapp (UrbisMedia Ltd. Pub. 9.23.2008)
*From Lifelines, by Sebastian Gerard (Peter Pauper Press, 2005)