by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: February 02, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2009

Politicians lie for the same reasons anyone lies, to gain advantage or to escape unpleasantness. But I think that many people are of the opinion that politicians lie more than your average person on the street. Is there any evidence for this or any reason why that might be true?

I don't know if anyone has done a study on how often politicians lie. Our own experience of politicians, especially during elections, is that lying is pretty pervasive. In the last presidential election it got so bad that some candidates would reverse themselves on the same day. Some continued to tell the same lie even after it was found to be factually untrue.

So politicians do lie and may lie much more frequently than the population at large. Why would that be?

Who Runs for Office?

If you look at the occupations of politicians prior to running for office, you will find that many are lawyers. Many were in business or in the financial world. Many of these were well versed in lying before they ever entered politics.

Why Do They Run For Office?

Another very important factor in the behavior of politicians is the question, "Why do people run for political office?" The idealistic answer is that they want to serve their country. They want to make America a better place, to make life better for all Americans. It's possible that some people actually enter politics with such ideals. It's even possible that a few are able to retain their ideals through years of public service.

I believe the primary reason that people run for public office is for power. What kind of people seek positions of power? While it might seem counterintuitive, I believe that the people who seek positions of power are generally people who do not feel powerful. Anyone who feels a sense of personal power does not need to seek power in any of its forms.

Powerless People in Public Office

The irony is that the people who run for office are the very ones who do not feel powerful. They think that they will feel powerful once they have gained office. Unfortunately, they find out that they were wrong. Even though they gain the power of office, they still don't feel powerful. Therefore, they must exercise their power in some way to make them feel powerful. Whatever that might be, it doesn't work either.

Did you ever wonder why, with 300 million people in this country, it seems so difficult to get amazing and wonderful people to run for high public office? Out of 300 million people shouldn't there be a handful among this multitude who could

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