There are varying degrees of lies. Ignorance is not a lie, making a prediction that does not come true is not a lie, and it seems that in the world of politics making a promise that you do not keep or even intend to keep is probably considered less that a full on fib. “read my lips, no new taxes.”

Technically I guess if one actually believes what he or she says is the truth, then it is not a lie even if it involves rationalization bordering on the pathological.

What is most common in politics is misleading, intentionally or out of ignorance, by using only a part of the truth. I have claimed in this blog before that a part of the truth can be much more misleading than all of a lie. When one parses the truth with the intent to either mislead or just to assuage their own guilt ( “ that depends on what the meaning of ‘is’ is”) or uses similar mechanizations with the intent to mislead, then we can get caught in the veracity of the word ‘lie’. When this happens the accused struggles to justify compliance with the word of the law or the question, but completely obscures the spirit of the law or the inquiry. Sycophants will rationalize away such accusations, but in the end we know they are attempting to mislead us. We depend as heavily on complying with the spirit of the law or honesty as the letter and word.

In private business relationships we would never accept such parsing, rationalizations, and excuses. Once the trust is breached we would fire them and never enter a relationship with them again. We should do the same in politics. If we do not then we deserve the leaders we get.

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