The Biggest Lie

I may have picked it up from something I read, but for a while now I've been saying that The Biggest Lie in politics is that everybody does it. When a politician is caught doing something they shouldn't, the common response from them and their supporters is that a) everybody does it and b) you shouldn't single them out for punishment.

But you name it: bribery, lying, forging, personal scandals, whatever, it's as with every other antisocial activity: a small proportion of folk commit these kinds of public sins and they receive a disproportionate amount of attention, making it seem to some as if everybody does it.

This is the ultimate rationalization, offered without documentation to back up its thesis, preying upon the cynicism of the weak. In this instance as in so many others cynicism is a weakness often used to justify inaction ("why bother?").

So for whatever insane reason the US Supreme Court is actually having a hearing about whether the president is above the law. As with so many issues affecting our lives they are treating it as an academic exercise instead of affirming that we have no king, no kaiser, no tsar in our land. A system of checks and balances exists explicitly to limit power by those who govern us, but, you know, whatever. 

Trump claims that every other president needs immunity from criminal prosecution and that's why he should have it, although given the multiple trials going on sometimes he claims those violations of the law he was found to have committed (such as sexual assault) were both as an office-holder and as a private citizen. There is no way to accept his contradictory defenses as consistent truth, but he has a lot of lawyers and a lot of money and does not seem to care.

So, let me shout it again from the rooftops: the biggest lie in politics is that Everybody Does It. People that claim that are lying to your face and unworthy of any of your respect, let alone your support.