The quotation in the title is by the philosopher Nietzche. It clearly explains what has happened in the
US political environment. Our two-party system
is devoted to creating convictions that are displacing truth. We are being served convictions consisting of
self-serving lies and misrepresentations
with an absolute minimal backup of truth.
It is almost impossible for the citizenry to pick out the pure truth
that is necessary for wise decision making. They are confused.
It is difficult to imagine how the country will finally work
itself back to health without a major influx of truth into our political campaigning.
However, neither the political parties
nor the media seem interested in this happening.
One site, .FactCheck., founded in 2003. and supported by the Annenberg Foundation is a leader in focusing
on examining modern political statements for truth. It does this by applying tough journalism and
scholarship to both parties’ releases.Spend some time at the FactCheck site and you
will be amazed at the level of misleading
information detected in releases by both
parties that is not challenged by the traditional media. Also impressive is the effort of FactCheck to
remove bias from their analysis.
The lock the political parties have on our election process is
very harmful to our country. Congress must be turned independent. This will be difficult if the public only
receives confusing and self serving information from the two parties. That is the situation now.
There are those who feel that lying for political gain in no
less serious than lying for financial gain or to a federal agent, both of which
are illegal. On the other hand it is
very disturbing to have the government involved at all with regulating
political speech.
Like most reforms, the only solution is a more diligent and
better informed citizen. Maybe someday politicians will issue their statements
accompanied by a FactCheck stamp.
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