by James Paprocki

Created on: February 23, 2011

The lying politician; it's a stereotype that has been with us since time immemorial.  But despite the terse, resigned repetitions of this fact which we all hear from time to time, the question remains: why do politicians lie?

The answer to this age old question lies in the very nature of politics within a representative democracy.  A politician is elected to represent a large group of people.  He represents people with diverse viewpoints, which they hold to with great vigor, many of which are diametrically opposed to each other.  It should come as no surprise then that lying (or shall we say, "massaging" of the truth), would be endemic within politics.  Any politician who stands firmly to a single viewpoint, even in the face of those who hold opposing viewpoints, might soon discover the nasty election night truth that those who did not hold to his viewpoint were disinclined to vote for him.  In direct contrast, a politician who can "bend the truth" to sell himself to the many different sub-constituencies which make up the constituency he is supposed to represent receives more support, which oftentimes translates into the difference between being elected and being defeated.

This in and of itself would serve to explain much of the lying which goes on in politics.  However, on top of all of that, we also have the ego boost and sense of self-importance which comes with being elected to high public office.  This rush of ego and (perhaps exaggerated) sense of self-importance can overwhelm a politician with a feeling of invulnerability.  As the saying goes, "power corrupts".  We need look no further than the sex scandals which pop up regularly in the world of politics to see this effect in its full glory.  Just as it applies to the actions of politicians, so it also applies to their words.  This leads many politicians to lie over and over again in the misguided belief that they'll never be caught.

Just as the old adage admonishes us that "you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs", we would do well to remember that we can't have a political system which is based upon a foundation of representative democracy without also having our share of lying politicians.  Although we can do our best to minimize it, we will do well to accept that a certain level of truth bending among our elected officials is the price we have to pay for our system of democratic governance.

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