The growing threat of intellectual dishonesty

A long time ago, when Apartheid was in it's end days, where every party I went to was playing Free Nelson Mandela, I was yelling at my very conservative step-father about the evils of P.T. Botha. His response, which I'll never forget, was "he may be an asshole, but he's *our* asshole".

A couple of years ago, after the huge Republican defeats in Congress, Rush Limbaugh came out and basically admitted to supporting Republican policies he didn't agree with, simply because it was better to do that than let the other side gain any ground.

The last element is the overwhelming support Sarah Palin was given, publicly, from the intelligensia of the right-wing when her surprise selection was announced, and throughout the campaign, despite her missteps.

The bottom line is, that at some point, we've gone past just trying to *spin* things in our favor to allowing, and participating in, a type of intellectual dishonesty where we're willing to lie to ourselves, or others, just from fear of giving any edge to the other party. And that is when we're putting party ahead of country, and worse, party ahead of reality and honesty.

It can't continue. It may be the #1 reason why people are so dissatisfied with politics and the current state of American leadership. And it is certainly responsible for the growth of partisanship over the last ten years. If you're going to lie about where you really stand on an issue, is there *any* hope at all for compromise?

I've used Republicans as examples here, only because their position in power has created more opportunites for dishonesty; but Democrats are equally culpable. To not question Reid or Pelosi's mistakes, or to simply admit that the level of Change that Obama promised during his campaign has not yet materialized, would be continuing that pattern of lying.

We're stronger, as a Nation, when we can disagree, at whatever level, internally or externally. When people in a party start lying to themselves and others, it is done from fear, fear of weakening their party or giving strength to others. And if nothing else, the last 8 years have shown us that very little good comes from making decisions based on fear.