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Harold S. Reed Jr.

Owner, Speaker & Coach, HRJR Enterprises

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Why do people get mad when lied to by politicians ... especially when they basically beg politicians to lie to them?

As I've gotten older, I decided to make myself more aware of world and national events - especially our political process - I find myself growing increasingly disgusted.

It just seems like this society consists of people who, collectively, are as effective as a dog chasing its tail. I say this because it seems people get mad when politicians either appear to, or flat out, lie to them, but the only way politicians will get elected is if they tell the people what they want to hear (regardless of the real-time circumstances).

People want politicians to make everything all better with the same expediency as a mother kissing a baby's boo-boo ... and then act as mature as that baby when it realizes the pain is still there.

Topics: 2012 US election
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    Krisztián Pintér 200+

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    Oct 19 2011: i was stupid enough to go to the wall street topic, and tell people that governments do what people ask for. the experience was unpleasant. i wonder how far you get with it in a separate conversation :)

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      Orlando Hawkins 20+

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      Oct 19 2011: I actually agree and its usually the people that vote these individuals in that complain the most. Its one of the reasons why I don't vote. Its like giving someone the match to burn down my house and then complain about them burning it down. I see this a lot as well. With the election of Obama in the U.S. he stated what he intends to do with economy. He mentioned it may take more than "one term" to get things back on track. People celebrated and voted him in. Now the biggest complaint is that things are not recovering fast enough and that he is the main person responsible. Truth is the people are just as responsible as the politicians.
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        Harold S. Reed Jr.

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        Oct 20 2011: True, but since Obama DID say it would take more than one term to get things back on track, he has not lied. And as for not voting, that's more like giving someone the match to burndown your house. The only difference is when you vote, you know who you're handing the match to in the hopes they light the right kind of fire. By not voting, you're basically holding out your hand with the whole book of matches in it, while at the same time turning your head and closing your eyes. What happens then is whoever wins gets to walk up to you and take the matches you're holding out ... and when that happens, you really can't complain because you blindly gave the matches away.
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          Orlando Hawkins 20+

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          Oct 20 2011: True. I was merely responding to what Krisztian said about politicians are doing what the people voted them in for. One reason I heard why people voted for Obama is because he symbolized hope and progress whereas McCain did not. What I realize is that people were so caught up in how appealing Obama was (he was younger, new, ambitious, intelligent and above all, he has excellent rhetoric skills) instead of really listening to what he actually had to say, which, as we both pointed out, he did not lie but many individuals feel or act as if he had.

          I find the point you make about voting very intriguing but I would have to partly disagree, from a purely individual standpoint. In this case, at least from what I read from your comment, an apathy towards voting is equated with ignorance. This is partly true and this is partly false.

          I can't speak for everyone but for my individual case I actually keep up with current events, policies, etc. My main reason for not voting is because I think an incremental system, a system in which we pile laws upon laws, policies upon polices, is not an effective way of being progressive. There are some policies that I am very skeptical and critical of and given that there are many conflict of interest involved and that most of these politicians serves a higher agenda, I really do not think that voting will serve the interest of the whole, but only the poly-archy. Plus I really think my reasons for not voting are much more reasonable than why most people do vote in which I call blind democracy (i.e. voting due to religious convictions, because the candidate is pretty, etc, etc). Now if I was not informed and apathetic and did not really care about politics but yet criticized these politicians, the I would agree with you and I have met people like this.

          I do think I can criticize these politicians being that I keep myself informed. I did not even vote for Obama and yet he is still president. My lack of voting does not matter in this regard

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