For a democracy to function properly, the people must be armed with information. Governments must operate openly and disseminate accurate information to the public. Politicians must truthfully articulate their policy stances, and base them on reason and fact. We are no longer afforded these requirements which are necessary to sustain a democratic system of government.
The problem isn't that politicians lie. It's that they (usually) don't. They articulate ideas and arguments that can be neither proved nor disproved. They've basically adapted the advertising model to politics. The people are left to decide not which politician is telling the truth, but which politician sounded most authentic, which presidential candidate looked more "presidential." During post-debate analyses, pundits rarely consider which candidates' claims were true. They examine who was more convincing. Our closed political system enables, indeed demands, such a conversation.
Newt Gingrich's ascendency to the GOP presidential nomination perfectly illustrates this phenomenon. Gingrich, who George Will described as "the classic rental politician," maintains loyalty only to power. His stances on issues are at best schizophrenic, at worst for sale to the highest bidder. Yet, at this particular moment, he is winning the audition to be the GOP nominee. His truthfulness is irrelevant. He is the most authentic character of the nomination reality show.
The problem of fact-less politics is now systemic. To reverse this trend, the public must take to the streets and turn to the polls with a basic demand of information. But until then, let's see who gets voted off the island next.
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