I know more average people than I know politicians. Of the average people that I know, most of them lie from time to time. As a result, I can only conclude that there are far more lying citizens in my life than there are lying politicians.

This topic forces the assumption that "all politicians lie". People say this every day, but offer no concrete proof, relevance or specific situations whatsoever to support such a broad and sweeping statement. We have no proof that the average politician lies any more than the average mechanic, insurance salesperson, apartment complex manager, or anyone else.

This does not mean that politicians never lie. It means that the nature of the job has categories of lying:

For politeness and conduct: A politician might lie to a ranting lunatic at a Town Hall meeting and say that he or she "Really cares..."

In formal settings: A politician might make a diplomatic lie in order not to offend an offensive person.

When blindsided by a question: A politician might make statements that indicate something other than what later turns out to be the truth. One representative was notorious for documenting every minute of his day, so that he could not be blindsided by a question about where he was three months earlier, then called a liar for saying "I don't know, maybe I was golfing."

When blindsided by bad information: A politician might try to "wing it", based on what he or she has been briefed on or told, then turn out to be wrong.

A politician may decide to not answer a question, no matter how aggressively and persistently he or she is asked. A politician might change the subject, duck and dodge, and otherwise make a fool of him or herself, but that is not tantamount to lying. That is just an act of not wanting to discuss the matter at that time or upon demand by irrelevant and unauthorized individuals.

A politician might be bound by security rules, but may not quite know if any or part talking about a subject might reveal classified information. Believe it or not, even mentioning that the information exists and is classified might be a security violation.

When Joe Wilson called President Obama a liar, he was lying. There was no provision in any health care reform bill that gave away any party loot to illegal aliens. This means that Joe Wilson might be lying about his motivations for conducting himself in a manner that got him censured. The challenging campaign that he is facing in 2010, plus the massive increase in his campaign monies, indicates that he may be lying about everything that he's done since then.

Most politicians do not conduct themselves in a fashion that calls for lying. Most politicians don't need to lie. Most politicians do operate in a minefield of privileged, controversial, classified, or volatile information and communications challenges.

But most of them do not lie any more that the average American citizen in a culture and a world where lying is a way of life.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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