Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell

Much was made of Donald Trump's exaggerations and lies across his candidacy and Presidency, and we were routinely informed of his outlier status in the truthfulness department. Truth be told (see what I did there?), he wasn't an outlier (out-liar. See what I did there?) in any way excepting unctuousness. His great flaw wasn’t so much the exaggerations or fallacies, but simply the lack of the politician's skill in prevaricating.

Behold, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from May 2022.

I don’t disrespect people’s views and how they want to live their lives, but I don’t think that it’s up to the Donald Trump appointees on the court or any politicians to make that decision for women.

Read that opening clause again.

I don’t disrespect people’s views and how they want to live their lives.”

LIAR!!!!!!!!!!!! LIAR, LIAR, PANTSUIT ON FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pelosi and the Left have absolutely no respect for either "people's views" or "how they want to run their lives." This should be so obvious that I need not list examples (such would fill volumes) - but if you, dear reader, believe that my assertion needs supporting content, let me know and I'll add some to the comments.

After that bald-faced lie, we find Pelosi throwing shade at the integrity of the Court by aspersing Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett with the accurate-but-insinuating "Donald Trump appointees" bit, clearly attempting a guilt-by-association and an assertion that they are neither independent thinkers nor legitimate members of the Court. Pelosi, you may recall, claimed that the 2016 election was "hijacked," and numerous members of her party called Trump's presidency "illegitimate."

Finally, we have the bit I've blogged about before: the "my body my choice" mantra. There are but a handful of personal matters wherein Pelosi et al avow individual autonomy. Abortion much tops that list, with transgenderism a recently added #2. In both cases, however, they tip the scales in one direction. Try to talk people out of getting an abortion, and you are not only a monster, you may get firebombed. Fail to aggressively affirm some teen's thoughts about transitioning, no matter how fleeting, and you're a horrible bigot who should be removed from that teen's presence (as well as apt to get cancelled, deplatformed, and otherwise scrubbed from Big Tech’s platforms).

We are denied or restricted in countless other choices (by both the Left and the Right, it's worth noting):

• What we eat, drink, or otherwise put in our bodies.

• With whom we interact economically.

• What we are allowed to buy or sell.

• For whom and under what terms we trade our labor for compensation.

Ponder your daily life, and contemplate how those four categories of government interference in your choices and individual autonomy cover just about every aspect of it.

I offer an addendum, just to tie in the other hot button of the moment: Pelosi would deny us the tools by which we’d defend ourselves and the nation, i.e. guns.

Shouldn’t a woman have the right to choose the means by which she protects herself and her family?

So, Speaker Pelosi is full of fertilizer on the matter of people living their lives as they wish to.

This makes her no different than most politicians.

Or, if you prefer,

How do you tell if a politician is lying?

His lips are moving.

The art of lying, exaggerating, deflecting, conflating, implying, and the like (and it's a single art) without being obvious about it is something that, unfortunately, is all too prevalent among our elected and appointed representatives. Some of this is understandable, given that short-format answers to nuanced matters can be extremely fraught, but there are those who strive to minimize this, and there are those who lie as naturally as they breathe.

And, just as we are usually unaware of our breathing, I believe that such frequent liars are unaware of some their lies. Pelosi may truly believe she doesn't "disrespect people’s views and how they want to live their lives," and we can go down the rabbit hole of whether you are lying if you make a false claim about yourself that you've convinced yourself is true, but a person with so much power cannot be excused for self-delusion, and in any event the inner workings of her gray matter are irrelevant - only policy is.

Which brings us full circle to Trump and his inability to lie glibly or slickly. Apart from the blather that came out of his mouth, his Presidency, from an actions and policy perspective, stayed in the expected lanes, and he kept a decent number of campaign promises. Some good, some bad, nothing so outrageously out of bounds that the country was upended. His presidency, again considered by deeds rather than words, was adequate, and a welcome respite from the Left’s relentlessness.

His biggest faults were his character, his narcissism and thirst for adulation, and his untethered style, with the last having the most impact by destabilizing and polarizing public discourse. This was his undoing - had this “style” mellowed across his tenure, he’d be sitting in the White House today, no matter the Russiagate lie, no matter the left-media’s endless scale-tipping, and no matter Big Tech’s war against him. His personality, not his policies, failed him (his post-loss tantrums, however, are a whole other matter, to be discussed another day).

Biden, who glibbed his way into the White House, has gotten so much wrong it's hard to tally it all, after embarking on a hard-left path despite promising (and being chosen) as the most moderate of all the Democratic candidates. See: Liar.

Despite all the “Trump’s a liar!” yelling, we know who the biggest liars are. That they’re better at it is the only reason they’re in power today.

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Yours in liberty,

Peter.