August 19, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Political Mudslinging: Some are just plain dirty
Politics is full of mudslinging and there’s no shortage of derogatory, scandalous or even malicious attacks. But for me, it’s easy to know who to support. Let me explain.
When it comes to bending the truth to get a point across, it is a fair statement to say both sides, Democrats and Republicans, are guilty as charged. But what I will not accept is that both sides engage in flat-out lies with the explicit purpose of misleading Americans into supporting policies that are against their own interests. This is a specialty of the Republicans Party.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that there are no bad seeds in the Democratic Party, but when it comes to most Democrats, they might bend the truth but they are not trying to deceive Americans into supporting policies that would harm the poor and the middle class (which is most of America). No, these kinds of lies are the exclusive domain of the Republican Party.
So for me, it’s actions that speak louder than words. President Obama, and other Democrats might be guilty of mudslinging with a half-truth (or worse) but I challenge you find a confirmed Democratic lie intended to deceive Americans into supporting policies that would be against their own interests.
I care more about what politicians and elected officials do than what they say. If they support equal rights including equal rights to the voting booth, marriage equality, equal pay for woman, and if they support extending a hand to the poor and disenfranchised, then I can overlook the occasional half-truth, or even blatant lie. But this is only forgivable so long as the lie is not intended to deceive Americans on any important issues including the issues I just mentioned. If a politician is telling a lie for political gain with the intention of misleading Americans on any of these issues, then that lie is unforgivable.
So if you are a conservative or a Republican, go ahead, you can point out when President Obama or any other Democrat has stretched the truth or even lied, but I know where they stand on these issues compared to most Republicans running for office in 2012. Yes, politics is a dirty game, but there are some people playing the game without sacrificing their ethics and their moral compass, and then there are others who are just plain dirty. / photo by Lars Plougmann