Listen to lies and reject those who tell them

We live in a nation that does not appreciate silence. So many of the charlatans that hold our democracy hostage with lies and false witness would blink out into irrelevance if met with silence. Our political parties draw strength from having an opponent to fight — if the Democrat party evaporated the Republican Party would soon dissolve from irrelevance.

We, the people, need to cultivate a culture where liars, con-men, demagogues, and the generally dishonorable are ignored both in the media and at the ballot box. That requires people to do two things: stop watching media that uses these people to sell commercials, and stop voting for a person primarily as a way of keeping the other person out of office. If we continue to vote for the lesser of two evils our sorrows will continue to multiply.

Yesterday it was the political contamination of the pandemic response. Today it is political contamination of mitigating gun violence. Yesterday it was abandoning Afghanistan. Today it is the slow death of Ukraine. Things get worse when our elected servants don’t get better.

No logical person would argue that the trend from Bush, to Obama, to Trump, to Biden, is one of improving ability and performance. All of them trade on the fact that people who cannot tolerate silence don’t think about the lies they are told. Our society must cultivate a culture of listening, because listeners think about the lies they are told, and reject the people who tell them.

David Sheets

Marion