The Detrimental Effects of Dishonest Politicians on Democratic Societies
In democratic societies, politicians are elected to uphold the interests of their constituents. However, when these representatives fail to stick to their word, mistrust and skepticism begin to pile up. Dishonesty, unethical behavior and broken promises all contribute towards a growing lack of trust in politicians. If the folks don’t trust their politicians, that lack of trust will ultimately undermine the democratic system. It just might be handy for us voters to understand the factors that contribute to damaging political behavior. That way, we can have a kind of measuring stick to observe the effects of a lie on the breakdown of confidence in the democratic system.
When politicians make promises during their election campaigns it’s one thing. We expect a lot of hot air before an election. But when they report reality to us we expect we should be able to trust that part, at least. So when Margie hauls her sweet self down to the jail there in Washington, we should be able to trust her claims — that the prisoners are actually chained to walls and starved on stale bread and water in true cartoon-fashion. But when it turns out that they have iPads or some such and are actually held in better living conditions than the general incarcerated populace, it’s hard to believe what the girl is saying, even if she is from Georgia.
Speaking of hard to believe, St. George, the patron saint of all liars, made an appearance in New York to help Margie in her damned quick defense of Orange Man. I don’t think St. George was very effective. Marjorie sat in a car and crushed on Orange like she was maybe in heat or something. I don’t know what else would cause a woman to compare Orange to Jesus or to that Mandela fellow. When I get down to it, I don’t think I’d like Margie to have to be in too many classified briefings. That girl can talk some trash. Even though all her trash talk can be ignored, she doesn’t watch what she says all that well, if you know what I mean.
Dishonest politicians often seem to be more interested in their self-interests and personal agendas, as opposed to serving their constituency’s interests. They also tend to exhibit a lack of transparency around their personal interests and their affiliations with big corporations, which in turn undermines the democratic process even more. But recently there has been a growing demand for accountability, if we can call it that. I suspect that what we collectively feel has its origins deeper in our memories. Maybe what we feel is more nearly related to fairness. When we see Orange being indicted by the Grand Jury in Manhattan we all have to say, “Well, that’s fair.” Because if any of us had done those things we would have been paying for it a long time ago. As a consequence of this early childhood sense of fairness, we pretty much can all say that Orange deserves what he’s getting. But at the same time, it’s really hard to say anything bad about your hero, and Orange is a hero to a lot of regular ol’ folk. Especially to that demographic whose kink is “being oppressed”.
We could fairly say that dishonesty could be considered the petri dish of mistrust. Rumors and innuendos become Breaking CNN News or at least a Tik Tok. The media scrutinizes every action of the government in order to figure out what the politicians are lying about. When the media holds a certain Orange fellow accountable for his actions, they tend to be labeled as fake news. The media is a critically important component in upholding democracy, and the media must hold politicians and lawmakers accountable without fear of repercussions. However, when the media is in bed with the lying politicians, we’re all in trouble no matter what Sean, Laura or even Trucker says, or maybe because of what they say. If we were to have a law that required even pseudo news anchors to disclose who they are and what they are actually doing, you might hear something like this hyping the man. “Be the first to catch all of Trucker’s lies in a single broadcast. For the low cost of $9.99 you could be the winner of the growing lottery jackpot. Jackpot now over $800,000,000.00.” Just imagine.
A lack of trust in politicians and the media will generally lead to a loss of faith in the democratic system as a whole. When people feel that they cannot rely on their elected representatives or what should be a trusted news source they can act like a guy trying to explain why he bought the salted butter. He’s about to just throw up his hands and walk away. What else can you do when the likes of Margie wants a national divorce? Or when Mountain Laurel demands to be called Ultra-Maga. You throw up your hands and walk away. Right?
Dishonest politicians have a detrimental impact on any democratic society. Voters become disenchanted and disengaged, leading to low voter turnout, or maybe a decline in civic participation, and even civil unrest. The other day, school kids across the nation expressed their concern for their own safety by sitting out of class. Those young people have parents and those parents were in agreement for their kids to sit out of class. This was a call to action to politicians, but remember that dishonest politicians tend to obscure their relationships with big business. I don’t buy that BS because they all spout about guns not killing people. That is not the whole truth. There is no justification under the sun for a man to do nothing to protect children. It’s clearly lame to even suggest that arming teachers and locking doors is a solution. How do you do that in a club or a church or a grocery store? The only justification I can imagine is one where there is a lot of money involved for a lot of people. I can only imagine such justification if a politician is not a straight shooter.
Therefore, it is crucial to have an office in a healthy society to point out the consequences of the actions of political representatives. The office ensures transparency, which takes away the oxygen for civil unrest, and enforces accountability, which imparts a sense of fairness. A characteristic of the American people is that in times of disaster, they inevitably come to the aid of those in need. I find it hard to believe that the average person in the United States would refuse to help a stranger in need. Yet, we have politicians in congress who want to deny aid to older folks — who have paid taxes for that aid, by the way. That’s the same bunch of politicians who want to control what you or I do in our bedrooms. Those kinds of things do nothing to preserve democracy. You know, we have a lot of time invested in this experiment in self governance. Just because we run into a season of ignorance is no reason to do it all again. democracy can’t be done again. It lives of its own accord. Think of a bonsai that is hundreds of years old. It lives and has lived with many generations of people. So it is with democracy. It makes more sense to tend it and shape it, than to destroy what’s taken us generations to grow.
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