The legacy of the impeachment saga will not be whether senators ignored or accepted the evidence, but rather something even much bigger; that truth indeed no longer appears to matter, inside or outside of the courtroom. This is bigger than whether a corrupt conman stays in office or whether he is elected to a second term or even an unconstitutional third term or if he illegally seizes power for life.
No. What is even bigger, or what goes hand-in-hand with these developments, is that the erosion of the concept of the truth has arguably rendered a free and independent press irrelevant and has left Congress virtually impotent, but has also actually brought us to the brink of the collapse of democracy itself. That’s how much the truth matters.
This erosion of the importance of truth has not happened overnight. It has eroded by carving out exceptions and conveniently looking the other way. For instance, one lie from one president is actually considered greater and more offensive than the thousands of lies and counting by another president. This has been playing out in real time before our very eyes and ears these past few years. For instance, while in office, former President Bill Clinton lied before the Grand Jury and was impeached as a result. Conversely, the current occupant of the White House has told the public more than 16,000-plus lies while in office, with hardly a whimper. Aside from his corruption and insults against Mexicans, Muslims, migrants, African Americans, women, the disabled, the LGBT community, etc., common decency would have dictated that his serial lying alone during his campaign should have disqualified him from being able to run for office. But here we are now.
In the realm of politics, somehow, the 16,000 lies are given a pass as not real lies and certainly not crimes, because as the argument goes, the current occupant of the White House has not been under oath when he has been “untruthful.” The truth is, millions of us witnessed when he placed his hand on a Bible as he was sworn into office at his inauguration. Apparently, the Bible also no longer matters. Only via the art of sophistry are we asked to ignore what we witnessed - to not believe our ears and eyes — and now lying in public by presidents and other public officials has now been normalized by the US body politic.
And yet, since when have politicians become the arbiters and paeans of truth, decency and morality?
Perhaps this is because the US public has become immured from the meaning and definition of truth?
The reality is that one sole lie [in a resume] is enough to sink a career, destroy a reputation or end a relationship, etc. And that is precisely the issue, though contempt for the truth is not even actually new, but the norm. Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson lied about Vietnam and Southeast Asia. President Ronald Reagan and VP George Bush presided and oversaw the illegal Iran-Contra affair, all predicated on lies which involved, drugs, weapons, secret wars and US morals, etc.
Now the illegal war against Iraq was based on 10,000 blatant manufactured lies by President George W. Bush and his war cabinet. Rather than being sent to the Hague for starting a war re supposed weapons of mass destruction, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were unjustifiably killed, while W. and his former war cabinet to this day walk free, while US troops remain in Iraq.
So now we are shocked that a conman cavalierly lies every time he opens his mouth. And we should be. And that’s the problem; no one, not even anyone in Congress appears to be bothered by his lying, unless it is inside of a courtroom. But the truth is, they too lie daily to be able to support his fictional narrative. That speaks to the degeneration of truth in this country. Have we also forgotten that In the fall of 2019, Corey Lewandowski, former advisor to the current president, made the Orwellian claim that he has “no obligation to tell truth to the media.”
Does anyone have a responsibility to be truthful anymore? What lessons are being send out across this country — that power trumps truth, that lying no longer matters and that there is no longer a difference between right or wrong? How long can such a republic survive?
Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez is an associate professor at the University of Arizona and is the author of several books including “Our Sacred Maiz is Our Mother” (2014) and “Yolqui: A Warrior Summoned from the Spirit World” (2019).
From The Progressive Populist, March 1, 2020
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