Saturday, September 19, 1998

Lies, and more lies

By TOM EHRICH

c. 1998 Religion News Service

It was bizarre to read intimate Bill-and-Monica sexual details at the breakfast table last weekend, but not nearly so bizarre as the notion the president now will be judged harshly by Congress and the American public for having lied about it.

Truth took leave of American politics long before Clinton denied his sophomoric groping in the Oval Office. The mock horror members of Congress and commentators now express about his "lying to the American people" is offensive -- and itself testimony to a political environment where code language and manipulation of perceptions long ago edged truth-telling into its current status as merely one public relations tool among many.

Not only does that mock horror portray our politicians as guardians of truth, which they aren't, but it suggests that exorcising one bad apple will restore our republic to some former state of virtue.

Lying has been our political way of life for generations.

Racial bigots fought integration under a high-minded banner called "States Rights." A war-weary nation bought the illusion that the Korean conflict wasn't really a war. Our leaders lied about Vietnam and used artificial body-counts to manage perceptions. To promote the interests of American corporations, our leaders have supported dictators and overstated communist threats.

Politicians routinely lie about political contributions and the quid pro quo given big donors.

No one believes what politicians say on the stump. We barely listen. Elections are about carefully crafted messages, not forthright responses to real issues. The lying-game is so pervasive that much of campaign reporting focuses on how the lies are playing in Peoria.

Some observers worry that a president caught in deceit won't have credibility overseas. Since when have international affairs been governed by truth? The shelf life of our treaties is measured by self-interest, not virtue. Wars are sold as righteous, because young men and women wouldn't die for bananas or petroleum.

To think Bill Clinton has been playing by his own perverse set of ethical rules is absurd. From the beginning, he has been a superb player in the deceit game every politician plays. His mock sincerity played better than Bob Dole's mock sincerity, that's all.

Now he has gotten caught in sexual misconduct. He tried to squirm free, his handlers underestimated Kenneth Starr's antagonism and public relations savvy, and his sudden conversion to truth-telling didn't sell.

But in all of this, he was playing the game by normal rules. Lousy rules, perhaps, but normal in our corridors of power.

It is absurd for Congress to step up to the plate as virtuous truth-tellers who must now carry out a solemn constitutional duty. But this is headline time -- a short-term opportunity to deflate a popular presidency, and a long-term opportunity to seize power from the executive branch.

This isn't an unwanted diversion from fall campaigning. This IS the campaign.

We might decide that modern political norms stink. Maybe reading about thong underwear and pseudo-denials has opened our eyes. Maybe we have had enough.

But it would be illusion of even greater danger for us to think that punishing one bad boy will save the republic. Lying works in politics because we let it work. We haven't asked our leaders for truth, because we haven't wanted to see the truth. We take their image ads seriously, because the issues bore us. We give Clinton's apologies a sincerity rating, as if he were a gymnast, because it's easier than examining complex legal and ethical issues. We are seeing the logical outcome of a political system centered in artful deception.

If we're going to demand public retribution, let's all drop to our knees.

Every voter who has cast a ballot without knowing a candidate's views, every lobbyist who has portrayed self-serving legislation as being "for the good of the nation," every member of Congress who has orated to an empty chamber in order to get his words into print, every politician who has made appointments to reward friends, every candidate who has churned fear and bigotry, and every preacher who has waved a Bible to encourage fear and bigotry -- let's all drop to our knees.

If it's remorse time, let's do real remorse, not a single execution that leaves us feeling satisfied but unstained.

(Tom Ehrich is a pastor, writer and software developer living in Winston-Salem, N.C.)