"Watch What They Do"

 What sort of a moral sense inhabits the souls of presidents and trustees of some of the nation’s most elite colleges and universities where anti-Semitic student protestors have been allowed to terrify and physically harm Jewish students, block entrances to university buildings, and chant for the annihilation of Israel? These people head institutions that are supposed to help form future leaders. God help us if they do not uphold the values for which they claim to stand.

 

On the other hand, my normal cynicism toward Washington politicians was tempered this past weekend, when the House, under Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) passed three separate bills to support Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and a fourth bill that would seize frozen Russian assets and force a sale of Chinese-owned TikTok. Democrat House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) deserves congratulations for his help in this bi-partisan show of support for these important pieces of legislation. The United States has been singularly positioned as the leader of the free world for more than a century. With size comes responsibility – not to impose our way of life on others, but to provide a vision of what is possible when the individual is the basis of a “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” If we relinquish that role, the world will be worse off.

 

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

 

Thought of the Day

“Watch What They Do”

April 24, 2024

 

“Don’t listen to what people say; watch what they do.”

                                                                                                                Think Like a Freak, 2014

                                                                                                                Steven D. Levitt (1967-)

                                                                                                                Stephen J. Dubner (1963-)

 

It is said that Diogenes, an obviously odd but intelligent man who lived around 400BC, went about Athens’ marketplace with a lamp during the daytime. He claimed to be looking for an honest man. Apparently, he had little luck. We might well assume that a similarly futile search could be made in the nation’s Capital at any time of day. Politicians lie. So it is what they do that should galvanize our attention.

 

Lying is endemic and not limited to politicians. We all tell lies, or “white” lies as we euphemistically call them. Aesop’s fable of the boy who cried wolf warned that when persistent liars do tell the truth, no one believes them – a lesson that politicians, reporters and others should learn. In the 19^th Century, Carlo Collodi of Florence, the pen name for Carlo Lorenzini, gave us the story of the sentient wooden puppet Pinocchio whose nose grew longer when he lied. Sadly, lying noses do not lengthen among those in Washington today. Rather, they believe Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister who said that if a lie is repeated often enough it is perceived as truth – like telling the public that only adherence to a Democrat-led agenda will save the planet from destruction. Climate change is a fact. The planet’s climate has changed thousands of times over millions of years. It will continue to do so. But people’s behavior is just one cause. 

 

While the media has been filled with Donald Trump’s lies, exaggerations and transgressions – and, certainly, Trump is a notorious liar – lying comes naturally to most of those who become politicians. It was Joe Biden who told the world he was arrested when visiting a jailed Nelson Mandela, that his uncle was eaten by cannibals in the Pacific during the Second World War, that he visited “Ground Zero” on September 12, 2001, and, to a Teamsters meeting, that he once drove tractor trailers. Mr. Biden, of course, has the excuse that he is “an elderly man with a poor memory.”

 

There have been other colorful examples: Nine months before he resigned on August 7, 1974 over the Watergate break-in, President Nixon told a group of reporters: “I am not a crook.” President Clinton on January 26, 1998, referring to White House intern Monica Lewinsky, declared: “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” On September 5, 2002, President Bush told the American people that Iraq had “weapons of mass destruction.” And President Obama, on June 6, 2009, said, referring to his proposed federal takeover of healthcare: “If you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor too. The only change you’ll see are falling costs as reforms take hold.” 

 

But consider some of what they did: One of the five “plumbers” (James W. McCord) who broke into the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972 was a member of Nixon’s Committee to Reelect the President. Stains on the blue dress worn by Ms. Lewinsky suggested a definitional difference in the words “sexual relations.” Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. And, according to the Peterson Center on Healthcare, the cost for medical care services has risen 49.6% since June 2009, double the rate of consumer prices.

 

Today, we are told that the southern border is secure, yet according to The Washington Post “illegal border crossings have averaged 2 million per year since 2021, the highest level ever.” We are told of extraordinary job creations in the past three years, yet part of the rise has been an increase in part-time employment, as the ratio between full-time and part-time has narrowed since mid-2023. As well, part of the job increases are due to growth in government jobs. J.P. Morgan reported that government jobs gained 56,000 per month in 2023, more than double the monthly gain of 23,000 in 2022. On April 10, President Biden was quoted: “…inflation has fallen more than 60% from its peak…” While that was true, it is also true that in March of this year, the CPI came in at 0.4%, double the Federal Reserve’s benchmark.

 

On September 29, 2023, speaking at the Atlantic Festival in Washington, D.C., Jake Sullivan, America’s National Security Advisor, rattled off a list of positive developments in the Middle East, a result of Biden’s policies: “The Middle East region is quieter today than it has been in two decades.” Eight days later Iran’s proxy Hamas, headquartered in Gaza, launched an unprovoked attack on Israeli citizens, raping, mutilating and killing 1,200 civilians. Mr. Sullivan, in his comments, conveniently ignored the devastating withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, the pursuit of Obama’s Iran Deal, which has allowed Iran to pursue their atomic program, and the reluctance to pursue the Abraham Accords, which had been leading to Sunni Muslims’ recognition of Israel.  

 

We are told that democracy is at risk, if the despised Donald Trump is re-elected. No one doubts that the continuation of our democratic republic is vital to all Americans. But does the much-watched Trump represent the sole risk to democracy? Is there not a risk from those who have gradually (and insidiously) strengthened the Executive branch, especially from those who believe that government knows best? Democracy has proven to be the most equitable political system ever contrived, largely because it incorporates free market capitalism, which provides the economic growth necessary for a nation’s operations, defense, and its social welfare programs. But markets work most efficiently when regulations do not impede innovation and when taxes do not limit investment. Consider what has been done and what is proposed: Forbes reported on December 29 that 2023 that the Federal Register, the daily depository of rules and regulations, wrapped up 2023 with 90,402 pages, “…the second highest tally of all time.” On March 11, President Biden sent Congress his proposed 2025 budget, which calls for a $5 trillion increase in taxes, to come from corporations and individuals making over $400,000 per annum. Barriers to economic growth, whether from regulations or taxes, have unfavorable consequences for all citizens.

 

Nevertheless, we should keep in mind that lies are sometimes necessary. For example, in time of war lies can deceive the enemy, or they can be used to withhold the truth from those near death and who are emotionally fragile. It may be more ethical to lie to help a friend save face in public; and secrets, whether corporate, institutional or government, to remain secret may involve fabrications or even, God forbid, fake news. There have been times when Presidents have had to lie to the public in the interest of national security.

 

But none of these examples exonerate politicians who lie to curry favor, to harvest votes, to further political careers, or to those in the media who aid their ignoble political friends by obscuring facts. Hannah Arendt, a refugee from the deadliest of European lies, once wrote that perhaps political deception is the greatest threat. In a recent Wall Street Journal review of Richard Sennett’s new book, The Performer, Barton Swaim quoted from Yuval Levin’s 2020 book, A Time to Build: “…the presidency and Congress are just stages for political performance art; when a university becomes a venue for vain virtue signaling, when journalism is indistinguishable from activism – they become harder to trust. They aren’t really asking for our confidence, just for our attention.” Sadly, that seems to be true.

 

In 1969, Nixon’s Attorney General John Mitchell said: “Watch what we do, not what we say.” We did. You know the rest.