All politicians are liars. You’ve heard it a ton of times
and probably said it yourself. The problem is that it’s not true. Just like
every other profession, there are some that lie and some that don’t. Some that
stretch the truth and most that tell it. The vast majority do the right thing.
They just want to help people.
The problem is Donald Trump is a lair. And he makes the
people closest to him lie. If you don’t want to believe it, I can’t help you.
But deep down you know it’s true. You just don’t
care
.
Let’s use the inaugural as our first example. How big was
the crowd at Trump’s? According to him and his spokesman
Sean Spicer
, it was the
largest, even larger than Obama’s. It
wasn’t
. All you have to do is look
at the photos or talk to the Capitol Police. Both would convince you but you
have to actually care.
How many of you remember alternative facts? How in the hell
can you have alternative facts? Facts are facts and to say that there are
alternatives means it’s now OK to lie. Anyone sending someone out to say that
means you’re sending them out to lie. But you have to care that
Kellyanne
Conway
said it.
Don’t forget how under the North American Free Trade
Agreement, “We lost millions of jobs.” That’s just not true. There were certain
industries that lost jobs because of the deal but not millions. As former
Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer pointed out that in any trade deal, there
are winners and losers. But the American consumer gets products at a cheaper
price. Meaning they had more capital to spend so they created more jobs. You
have to dig into that a little
deeper
than the sound bite, but to do that you have to care.
Now I’m supposed to believe him on the Ukrainian quid pro
quo. Ambassadors, life long diplomats, Purple Heart winners and his own Chief
of Staff have admitted that there was one. They said the President
demanded
it. And to prove it to themselves, the Senate needs to allow witnesses and
testimony.
They need to fulfill their oath. They need to do their job.
They need to
care
.
Good riding with you.
(Joel Heitkamp is a talk show host on the Mighty 790 KFGO in Fargo-Moorhead. His award-winning program, “News & Views,” can be heard weekdays from 8 – 11 a.m. Follow Joel on Twitter @JoelKFGO.)
