The Truth Matters - Thoughts on a conservative voice from Alaska
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Then think on it.
Here is a conservative columnist in Alaska, not a liberal blogger in some big city, asking his neighbors a simple question cutting to the core of more than this campaign - it gets at the nature of our civil society:
Does the truth matter?
This is not just about Sarah Palin, her lack of candor, her brazen claims to have nixed the "Bridge to Nowhere" when she campaigned as a proponent, her stonewalling troopergate and trashing a public servant to shield from public view her abuses of power. Palin is a sideshow, a symptom. The disease is deception. Its carrier is our willingness to be deceived.
If we the American people once again fall for even the most outrageously obvious repackaging of the same bad ideas and self-interested non-leadership that got us where we are, then shame on us. We are not talking about "new and improved" being slapped on the same old soap claiming to be better at cleaning than its competitor. We are talking the fate of the world and our place in it.
Really.
They lied us into a war. Thousands are dead.
They lied to us about the environment. Our planet's climate is in crisis.
They lied to us about how cutting taxes and deregulating everything was just what our economy needed.
Millions have lost their jobs, their homes and Wall Street's bastions are falling like dominoes.
Now they are lying about:
- their record
- their past misconduct
- their platform
- their opponent's past and future positions
- basically everything
I ask you, will we let them get away with this again?
Jimmy Carter once said Americans deserve a government as good as our people. Perhaps that is just what we have.
That is what they are counting on. They are counting on you, buying the packaging, buying the lies...buying into four more years.
But I sense they are afraid, even desparate.
When they hear voices rising, even from conservative corners...crying "Enough!"...they fear something is changing, something in us. When the media starts looking at them and saying "no, that is not what you said" or "no, that is not really your opponent's policy," what do they do then?
So they are lying harder - and louder - because it is all that they know to do. At some point it becomes too flagrant, even for what passes as our national discourse. And they start getting called out - even by their own "true believers."
This could be the opening we are looking for - maybe people are beyond a mere yearning for the truth, they are ready to insist on it, to fight for it.
"Change always comes," a great man has said, "from the bottom up."
If this time is our time then it is high time we take action.
We must demonstrate with more than words who we are and to what model of society and its governance we aspire.
Our forefathers and mothers risked their lives for freedom from tyranny. What are we prepared to do?
Jesus said "The truth will set us free."
Paul enjoined us: "Speak the truth to each other."
Get informed. Get involved. Get people to the polls.
Get going.





Great blog.
While this trend may not mean more Obama republicans, it still indicates an unwillingness by conservatives to continue running this country into the ground in the name of neoconservative and the cult of personality that has grown up around it.
It is only a short step from questioning authority to rebelling against it.
September 17, 2008 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
It gives me hope that the entire country isn't crazy, knowning that the right-wing extremists haven't compeltely taken over all the Republicans.
September 18, 2008 10:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
That makes two of us.
September 18, 2008 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, JEM.
I so love the TR icon. It drives homes the point that Republicans who want real reform (like the kind that Teddy championed) should go with Barack who does more than just admire TR (one of McCain's personal heroes).
September 17, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exactly right. I think those types of republicans have a responsibility not to leave one of the country's two major political parties in the hands of neoconservatives.
It's why I became a registered republican last month after years of being an independent. Probably a losing cause, but why not encourage the transformation from the inside by working for reformers in the primaries? I can always vote straight progressive in the general.
I think there is a movement in the republican party that is going mostly unseen.
September 17, 2008 4:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent blog. I'm posting a link to my blog re the Fiefdom SP has got going in Alaska right now. And how this election is really:
A Referendum on the Constitution.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/09/alaska-fiefdom-harbinger-of-th.php
September 17, 2008 4:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
What I'm wishing is that Democratic candidates, especially Obama, would make explicit that the Republicans don't just campaign in a dishonest way, they govern that way, and it's no coincidence. They bring the same methods and ethics to governing as they do to campaigning. While the public can figure out that TV ads and stump speech sound-bites are lies, they need to be told this goes with how they govern. Too many people think they're two separate things.
September 17, 2008 5:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been amazed at the transformation in the media as reflected in editorials, op-eds, columns et al. Mark Ambinder, Richard Cohen, Chas. Krauthammer, Frum, Ruth Marcus and a host of others are rightfully taken back by the lies coming from McCain and his campaign. Even the AP, the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, WaPo and other newspapers along with talking heads on cable TV news are challenging McCain.
Describing someone as a liar used to be the exception to the rule, but that changed. Other words I never thought would be found in the same sentence muchless used to describe McCain include: dishonourable, deceitful, etc...
An element of human decency is the intolerance of lies and the people who tell them. The media let McCain off the hook for a long, long time. But when he started unabashedly lying about his record, his opponent, his views, policies etc... and even after being called on it continued repeating them anyhow, was the moment many journalists said "Enough!"
Likewise, up to a point, voters are tolerant of candidates spinning and stretching facts, but anything over that -- such as out and out lying -- is totally unacceptable. That is why McCain and Palin will be rejected in November.
Making hasty choices without considering the consequences is characteristic of McCain. He does not 'think', instead he jumps-in head first. So succumbing to his advisors' advice to lie, lie and lie some more, McCain revealed to the nation and the world his weakness. John McCain is no leader. He does not have the credibility to lead.
Evidently McCain and Palin believe they can lie and the voters won't notice or even if they do notice, they won't care.
Well voters and the media do notice and do care.
Getting handed the keys to the WH is now nothing more than a fleeting dream for McCain and Palin because neither have the decency to be truthful.
Even the media agrees that the truth does matter, a lot.
September 18, 2008 6:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
well put.
September 18, 2008 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink