Books and Politics...

I like to say that West Wing is how we hoped the White House operated and Veep is how we fear it really is. Though now with the Reality Show President I think Veep might be a step up...

Anyway...reading Al Franken's book right now and it's an interesting look into the Senate part of our government. Now I've always liked Franken. Obviously his politics line up nicely with mine as does his snarky sense of humor. And, of course, I liked that he was willing to point out the lies of the Right. Bill O'Reilly was a favorite target. He wouldn't just say, "They are lying!" and shake his fist. He did his research. He showed where the lie came from. How it was promulgated. How it was designed so people believed it. And what a big crock of shit it was and why.

Of course this was before.

Before when I thought it mattered. In my crazy days of thinking that if you pointed out to someone that they were being told a falsehood, and showed them how it was a falsehood, it would matter. It took me a long time to realize that wasn't the case.

Now I see people who spent the last 6 years posting, "If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor" as a reply to why they would NEVER trust Obama keeping suspiciously quiet about the Twitterer In Chief and his weekly barrage of nonsense. Because it doesn't matter. Not really. They don't care about a lie. They care about an R or a D. And they care about winning. Which, sadly, is what Trump foresaw. That people just want to win. They want to be able to say, "We won, you lost, get over it."when you are pointing out that he is lying to them. He is lying about things that are ridiculous to lie about. Things that are easily checked. That saying, "I didn't say that!" is not in fact the same thing as not actually saying that. That BUT HER EMAILS doesn't really justify anything he is doing.

It doesn't matter.

And that's really sad.

I don't understand it.

I do understand shades. I do understand what I think of as a misstatement or being wrong you think of as a bold faced lie. I do understand that you might be more forgiving of someone who you believe thought they were being honest at the time while I think they knew all along. I do get that at times there are nuances.

But when it's just a flat out lie? When it's easily provable to be a lie? When they should and in fact have to know that they are lying and they say it anyway? How do you justify that? How does that not bother you? How do you defend it or just as badly stand quietly by?

So right now I am mourning a little while I read Al Franken's book. It's a good book, you should check it out. It sheds light on a lot of our processes of elections and governing. He's a funny man who had to work at not being publicly funny for awhile. It's really interesting. But it's also more than a little sad to me. Because I can't help but think of all the times I thought that truth mattered. That facts were important. That if you just showed someone what was going on, and if you could show them in a funny way so much the better, but if you just showed them the truth they would see it.

Now I know better.

Most see an R or a D and the rest doesn't matter.

But it really is a good book. No lie.