Lying and Politics

Everybody knows that politicians lie. But there was a time in Britain when the Duke of Wellington
could say, according to
Paul Johnson
(subscription required), of Sir Robert Peel: “I have sat in many cabinets with him,
and I have never known him, in public or
in private, say anything which he did not believe to be the strict truth.”

We have certainly progressed a long way since then.

The question is: why do today’s politicians today lie so much? The answer is pretty obvious. We require
them to lie. We refuse to be contented with the truth. We want our politicians to tell us what
we want to hear and nothing less will satisfy us.

Perhaps we can understand why people are upset with President Bush for not talking up the economy
and not rallying the American people for the war on terror. They want him to tell them the things
they want to hear.

Maybe President Bush’s problem is that he just doesn’t like telling lies.