You Can Fool Some of The People Some of the Time

You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you can fool some of the people long enough to get them to vote the way you want them to. Gone are the days when we could have a reasonable amount of confidence that our news sources would check stories for authenticity before they ran them. But, with the competitive nature of the media today, a company that takes two weeks to check out the latest scandal story will be left behind.

Political operatives use this to their advantage. They can slip a story into the fast-moving river of news that might be false. But, like a virus, it will do enough damage to accomplish its objectives. The objective of the right is not to win elections by significant majorities - it's just to win. In their view, 51% is as good as 100% because it gives them the power they want. They don't have to worry about influencing large numbers of people - just one vote is all they need to put them over the line. Once they get that vote, they're not concerned about how it looks or if they got caught. They got the vote, and that's all that matters. Once they have the power, they're not all that concerned with governing for the benefit of all the people.

Both sides do it, but it is more of a Republican strategy. We need to exercise our power of critical thinking and question everything, from both parties. If we assume that every political message is an attempt to manipulate and deceive us, then we'll do the hard work of checking the facts. The outcome will be a more intelligent and well-informed vote.