Lies in politics

I have been debating whether to discuss the American presidential election here as I meant to write about parenting issue. I have decided to go ahead because that is what is on my mind these days, and the politics does affect my children's future.

I know politicians lie, and exaggerate and mislead people to make themselves look good. I am however very surprised that they can get away with such white lies in America. There is a whole army of internet vigilante digging up facts, there are multiple cable news channels and newspapers who one thinks can focus on the issues and really dig deep. It doesn't seem to be happening, however. Is this because most news organizations are for-profit companies and fear losing their audience if they got too controversial. It is surprising that the toughest questions in this election are being asked by comedians such as Jon Stewart and Joy Behar? Why is it that when a candidate has clearly lied, a news anchor doesn't just say to them "Why did you lie about this?" instead they say "Some people believe that you are not being completely correct when you say such and such."

It completely amazes me that the party supporting a man born into a career naval family, who got into the naval academy on that merit, married to a heiress who owns eight houses can happily paint another man raised in middle-class environment by a single mother, who went to Harvard on his own merit, as an elite and not only get away with it but have people believe them. When I mentioned this to some people, they said this is because Americans do not want a college educated liberal running the country. And that is why they elected a guy from a wealthy family, who needed help to get into Yale as their president, twice, just because he appears "folksy"? Reality does not matter, only appearances do? Isn't this ironic that the party that claims to be fiscally responsible chooses as its VP candidate who was very incompetent in running the state she was the governor of?

I thought living in a developed country, with transparency in government, meant living among informed enlightened people who didn't get swayed by such fluff. Having grown up in a "developing" country, I have seen completely uneducated politicians get elected but I have never seen this level of distrust of education as I see in America. It is very strange and hard to fathom.

What explains American politics

I have been hear all these years an still cannot fathom American politics. Why is abortion such a big issue in choosing a president? I swear I have seen more relevant issues being discussed more intelligently in the political environs of so-called developing countries. Why is "Creationism" even brought up in the world's most developed country? Only in America, will people actually vote against somebody because he appears to be smart, thoughtful and articulate.

The only explanation I find is a quote I have mentioned on this blog before. "An immigrant's values stay frozen in the era they left their home country". America was founded by immigrants, poor religious people, who wanted to get away from the elite of their home countries and practice the conservative form of their religion. They are still stuck with their anti-elite, "our religion is under attack" and "a man has to be judged by the size of his balls" values that they came with.