I must admit to being a little distracted over the last few days by the weird and wonderful world of the US presidential nominee conventions. At first, we look askance at all that happens over the ocean, and feel smugly comforted by the fact that we would never get into a situation where the choice for the leader of the country is between:-
the wife of a past president, who is widely distrusted because of her close relationships with financial institutions, votes and actions in unwanted and unwarranted wars;
a four-times bankrupted, racist, misogynist builder who has to attach his name to everything.
While comparisons between Hillary (why two l’s I have no idea) Clinton and Theresa May might be a little tortured, or not, at least it is another historic hurdle for the US – nominating a woman for the highest office. And that is a good thing. And from public statements to date it would appear she at the very least intends to continue the progress instigated by her predecessor. Actually, that is another potential similarity between Clinton and May.
However, when we get to the other nominee, all bets on sanity are off. Supported, apparently, because he says what he thinks without concern for the political niceties, the reality is a sociopathic egotist who says whatever he wants, without reference to the truth, reality, this planet! That is even before we move on to insulting, women, Mexicans, Muslims, the handicapped, or the parents of military personnel who died serving their country. It has stopped being funny and has become a frightening view of one potential future.
Trump’s lunacy, however, is not the point for this posting. What came out of the race for the Republican nomination, and the rhetoric that followed, was the willingness of the targeted electorate to ignore or, more worryingly, to acknowledge and then ignore, all the outright lies and exaggerations presented as fact.
We may laugh at their gullibility, but large swathes of the UK electorate are just as guilty. Both sides of the referendum debate at the very least exaggerated beyond any logical limit, and as far as the Leave campaign were concerned, lied outright, continued to do so, and when questioned subsequently dismiss them as ‘politics’ and ‘history’.
That is not acceptable. It could be said that Cameron and Osborn have paid for their untruths by being unceremoniously dismissed, or scuttling away as quickly as possible, and Gove likewise. But Johnson has been rewarded to be the buffoon on a national stage, and Davis and Fox have their reward with the most important government posts in many a year.
Whether the referendum will stand in the end or not is for another day. What is important as a lesson that we, as a total electorate, have to learn is that politicians lie. They have admitted as much. We just have to stop accepting it.
And, as an addendum, we need to stop the media allowing them to get away with it quite as easily as they do.
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