Studies Show Conservative Candidates Lie A Lot More Than Liberal Ones
Conservatives have been found by fact checking organizations to lie or tell half-truths at three times the rate of Liberals (NYTimes report). So the question is why does the above phenomenon occur? After researching the subject I found that it comes down to fear, loss of power, and retaining their ability to manipulate the working classes.
Banksy street art
A quote from the New York Times stated, “In an op-ed she penned for the New York Times, Politifact fact-checker, Angie Drobnic Holan determined that of the 2016 candidates who are seeking Democratic and GOP nominations–along with a few other GOP luminaries such as Dick Cheney–the Republicans do indeed lie more than Democrats. Much, much more!”
The following is a survey of the relative dishonesty of present day political figures: Carson 84%, Trump 76%, Cruz 66%, Cheney 59%, Santorum 55%, Rand Paul, Biden, Jeb Bush 32%, Hillary Clinton and Sanders 28%, Obama 26%. With the exception of Bill Clintons, lies about his “Sexcapades”, and some foreign policy issues he comes in the lowest at 24%. Looking at the trend one can see that primarily the Conservative candidates are the biggest liars with a few exceptions such as Jeb Bush and Rand Paul.
I want to focus on the lies that deal with economics and foreign policy. When one is trying to be fair and not trying to oppress classes of people they have little incentive to lie. On the other hand, when the Elites need to start wars for primarily greedy profits it does not bode well to tell “John Q Public” that we want to take over Third World countries so that we can steal their natural resources, oppress labor, and put down democratic elections so that our corporate friends and bankers can amass immoral profits. So, the more palatable reason is that we want to “Defend Freedom and Democracy” and protect Americans, which is code for the above lies.
America and most other big foreign states are notorious for creating False Flag events to start profitable wars and to cover up these draconian events by launching obvious conflict of interest investigations. The primary purpose of the alleged investigation is not transparency or to get at the truth, but rather to create a convincing story to deflect the public’s attention away from the heinous government crimes. “9/11” and the fabricated “Official Report” are probably the greatest present day criminal operation that was based on hundreds of patent lies to protect high level leaders of America, Israel, and corporate America.
Reagan with the support of Neocon economist Milton Freidman sold the lie of “Trickle Down Economics”. The problem is that the trickle becomes very small after the Elites rake of their share by using monopolies, Madison Avenue smoke and mirrors, and bribing politicians to pass very favorable tax laws to favor their greedy interests.
The distribution of wealth after the Reagan administrations shifts to the top 10%.(Chart: Pavlina Tcherneva/Levy Economics Institute)
The other big lie is that giving tax cuts to the wealthy directly creates jobs. The wealthy have little interest in creating jobs, when their primary motivation is to get the greatest return on investment even if that means offshoring money, off shoring jobs, installing industrial automation, or just parking the money in the stock market, T-Bills, or real estate. The reality is that 70% of the purchasing power comes from the working class, not the wealthy. By giving generous tax breaks to the working class and raising taxes on the wealthy, the working class will create purchasing demand thereby directly creating more jobs. A dollar in the hands of the working class goes primarily into purchasing, where as a dollar in the hands of the wealthy usually does not go into more purchase demand, but less efficient investment vehicles. The primary source of job creation is small business start-ups. and working class consumer purchasing power.
Another lie is voter fraud. Studies have demonstrated that is little fraud at the basic voter level, but most fraud occurs at the vote counting level, or more egregiously subtle at the voter suppression law level. The wealthy are primarily the biggest Republican voters who are a minority compared to the massively greater amount of registered Democratic voters. The reality is that if registered Democrats voted in the same proportion as Republican voters, very few Conservatives would win office or get referendums passed.
“What’s that Harvey? They’re lying again?”
I am not saying that all lies to preserve economic and world power are just from the dirty hands of Republicans, but in the main the Republicans seem to be the major liars. Democrats such as Wilson, FDR, even Carter, Obama, and the Clintons have told many lies about foreign policy and wars to protect the Military Industrial Complex and corporate and banking power.
In conclusion, if you want to see who has the greatest motivation to lie, look to the leaders of our country who primarily represent corporate power and the Right Wing evangelical religious community. Trump has shown himself to be the King of Liars, but it follows that all he cares about is “Winning, Money, and Power”, without regard to the moral and ethical implications to the American people.
John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune
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