Why We Elect Liars

I was having a conversation with my mom the other day, something that naturally occurs on an eleven-hour road trip from Arizona to Utah, and the discussion turned, as it inevitably does, to politics.

My mom and I agree on most things political. She might be a hair more conservative than I am, which is ironic considering her status as a single-mother, country music hating, artistic feminist of the old school...but anyway.

We mutually realized during the course of our conversation, that politicians are dishonest because people are dishonest. I posited that the majority of Americans will tell a lie when the benefits seem clear and the risks seem low. A lie is like an investment--when the returns are assured, and the risks are minimal, most people will make that investment. Morality ends up being calculated right out of the equation, and our culture continues its steady decline.

So what if we were all a lot more honest? What if lying was much more socially unacceptable? What if, when we caught a politician in a lie, he or she was immediately removed from his or her office?

As it stands right now, we forgive lies among politicians remarkably easily. Obama has kept almost none of his campaign promises, and yet, almost uniformly, we respond with resigned acceptance of this dishonesty. "What politician doesn't make promises they know they can't keep?" many ask in his defense. Since making a promise you know you can't keep is just another form of lying, those who use this logic are essentially justifying dishonesty by its very prevalence.

Which is, sadly, somewhat fair. Politicians lie, and so do we. Incidentally, my counter-argument to this defense of Obama, in particular, is that he was supposed to be different. He built his campaign upon being different and bringing "change" to Washington. That's the only definite selling point he had. So if he's no different, then his unfortunate voters have been roundly duped. They elected a very standard politician who's defining characteristic now seems to be his astounding ineptitude and lack of essential experience.

But I digress. The point here is that we are in a position of great danger. We hate our elected officials, but we have no one to blame but ourselves, as a nation of ignorant and/or apathetic citizens. With prosperity comes apathy, and with apathy comes bondage.

The complaint is that we can't know politicians' true colors as we vote for them because they lie too well. But the truth is that they lie to us no more often than we lie to each other. Politicians' moral bankruptcy only reflects that of their constituents. We want our politicians to be better people than we are, but not only is that impossible, it's unreasonable.

We want to be outraged when our leaders lie to us, and sometimes we even pretend to be. If we truly are outraged, however, then we are hypocrites, because at the end of the day, we keep electing them.

If we want our leaders to change, we have to change. We have to start living our lives more honestly, and following our consciences more closely. We have to make hard decisions, guided by our inconvenient moral compasses. We have to be better. Each of us and all of us must be better. Only then will we be able to find within our ranks those who are fit to lead us.