To be a successful politician today requires the ability to be able to stretch the truth and still come across as honest Abe. This trend has become so prolific in the political arena that today’s media outlets including radio, TV and newspapers are reporting fact checking articles on the validity of the information coming from our leaders in Washington.
The latest fact checking came from President Obama’s State of the Union speech on February 12th. He stated that after years of recession we have created over 6 million jobs. In reality, we have gained about 1.2 million jobs during his time in office according to the associated press. The President failed to calculate about 5 million jobs lost during his first term because he started his count not when he took office but at a later date during his first term. On immigration he stated that reform means establishing a pathway to citizenship that requires all illegal immigrants must start their process of becoming a citizen from the back of the line. How can this be the case when we already have the provisional immigrants in this country on employer sponsor work visas that are already in the front of the line for all intention purposes? According to the president we have doubled the distance cars will go on a gallon of gas. The fact is that car manufacturers will not be making cars that will meet the new standard in mileage (54.5 average miles per gallon) until 2025. For those who feel that a few mistakes in the State of the Union speech are no big deal should turn their attention to the Benghazi s story. Up to this point, the Benghazi story represents either the biggest cover-up in the last 10 years or the results of a totally dysfunctional administration over the last several years. Either way, it has resulted in the death of an ambassador along with several embassy officials which might have been prevented.
In a democracy the government serves at the pleasure of the voters who deserve accurate answers in order to determine how their elective officials are handling the job. So why do some of our government leaders feel that they can continue to stretch the truth or give confusing answers if their reelection is on the line. Maybe they do not believe that their jobs are on the line if it is true that we have a growing group of uninformed electorate who no longer care what the government does on their behalf. If this is the case, we are gradually slipping from a democracy to a monarchy where the government makes the decisions for all of us.
Nevertheless, as long as we continue to be a democracy and our leaders in Washington are elected to office by the voters, they should be held accountable to voters for their actions as public officials. This relationship is founded on trust between the voters and elected official which dictates honest and accurate answers to all questions while serving as leaders. However, this will always require engaged voters demanding answers that make sense. Without informed voters that ask questions and hold our leaders responsible for their actions, there is a good possibility that some day we could lose this basic freedom to choose our leaders causing us to slip from citizens to subjects.
The comments this blog are those of the writer and are not to be considered as answers to various issues. (Please visit our Web-site at Compass Strategies Group.com)
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