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Turns out, truth is in the eye of the beholder

By Staff | Dec 27, 2015

A few days ago, a friend asked if I had watched any of the presidential campaign debates.

I answered, "If I wanted to hear lies, I could just listen to the myriad collection of political press conferences."

I am firmly convinced that, at least on the national level, no one wants to tell the truth. And it does not matter which party we talk about. None of them actually wants to discuss issues we, the people, want to discuss. We want to know exactly what they would do to solve problems. They are hell-bent to tell us anything they think we want to hear.

Even the national committees get in on the act.

The Democrat establishment doesn’t want Bernie Sanders, so they schedule one debate in a football-crazed state on the night of a big game; and another on a Saturday night, when the smallest audience will watch. Then they want to talk about the information Bernie’s staff downloaded that belongs to Hillary.

The Republican establishment doesn’t want Donald Trump, so they spend most of their time bashing Donald instead of telling us why they will run the country better than either Donald or the Democrats.

The Democrats tell us how bad the Koch brothers are for giving lots of money to the Republicans. Not a mention of George Soros.

The Republicans rail against Soros but won’t decry the Kochs.

Lying by omission is just as bad as telling falsehoods. I once asked a paid Hillary staffer to tell me what Hillary would focus on. The staffer mentioned women’s rights, including equal pay. She did not address the claim that female staffers on the Clinton payroll are not paid as well as male staffers. Of course, that interesting fact was alleged by the Republicans.

Every candidate claims to want to save Social Security and Medicare, but none of them supports doing the obvious: slowly raise the retirement age for those under 40 (after all, when the program was designed, most people did not live long enough to collect); allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. There is a good reason why the same branded drugs are significantly less expensive in Canada. I have yet to hear any candidate embrace that easy step.

Trump wants to deport all illegal aliens. Sounds good, but not practical or realistic. A better idea; deport anyone who breaks another law.

Clinton doesn’t want to talk about Benghazi, and certainly not about the illegal use of a private server. She still insists that no classified material was sent using that server, a claim that falters in the face of reason.

Sanders wants us to emulate a Socialist philosophy. Great theory. No mention, however, that it didn’t work for the Pilgrims, and no mention of how we are really going to pay for it. I am confident that the definition of "wealthy" will constantly be redefined until almost everyone is wealthy.

Many candidates from both sides want to accept refugees and immigrants. They claim that it’s the American way. Not quite true, of course. I seem to remember the requirement for a sponsor and an agreement that the immigrant will not become a burden on our society. The proponents carefully neglect pointing out the vast number of those who end up on public assistance.

Another case of lying by omission: "We are a nation of immigrants!"

Almost true. We are indeed a nation of legal immigrants.

None of this is new. Consider all of these missives from the mouths of politicians: "No new taxes. Read my lips." "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." "We are going after weapons of mass destruction." "Your insurance will go down $2,500." "Benghazi was a peaceful demonstration ignited by a YouTube video (which was seen by maybe 200 people)." Unfortunately, this paragraph could go on much longer.

Watch the debates? No thanks. I would rather sit and gaze at the sky. Fortunately, many newspapers, The Telegraph included, print a comparison of candidates just before the election which compares the candidates’ stated positions on a variety of issues. It is up to each of us to determine which of those issues are most important for us.

The best part of the campaign mailings and never-ending ads is that we get a big boost to the local and national economy.

As I peruse each of the mailings and listen to the rhetoric, a joke comes to mind that would be funny if only it were not true: How do you tell when a politician is lying?

Joseph Ross is the co-author of Fast Track For Caregivers, and is the editor/publisher of Rosstrum Publishing. An occasional contributor to these pages, he resides in Nashua and can be reached at rosstrumpublishing@gmail.com.

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