Political lying is not confined to the United States. The governing body of Wales, the Senedd, is drafting legislation to make politicians liable to criminal prosecution for making false statements to garner votes. According to The Guardian newspaper in London, “There is already legislation in Wales that makes it an offence for political candidates to make or publish a false statement of fact about the personal conduct or character of a rival to win votes.” The broader restrictions on lying will come into effect in 2026.
This was probably news to a SXSW audience that came to see the famed journalist Bill Adair speak. Adair, a Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University, told the crowd in Austin about the situation in Wales. But he is not sanguine about it.
“The thing that is probably going too far is what Wales looks like they’re going to do, which is to outlaw political lying. Even as someone who thinks lying is destroying our democracy, I think that you cannot outlaw political lying. It’s going to be really interesting to see how Wales does.”
As for the situation in America, Adair has some advice for the Democratic party. “If you look at how the Democratic leadership has responded to the wrecking ball in Washington, it’s been about facts. And I mean – this is odd coming from the live-fact guy – it’s got to be fought with feelings in ways that we appeal to this feeling. I think that’s what DT understands: that it’s about feelings.” [it is Sun News policy not to publish the name of convicted felons; initials only are permitted]
Adair was also at SXSW to sign his new book, Beyond the Big Lie. Yes Virginia, Republicans lie more than Democrats. Adair’s book seeks an answer for this horrific epidemic. “Why are they such big liars?” Adair asks on page 124. For one answer he turned to Matthew Dowd, a media consultant who has worked for both parties. Dowd said that Republicans don’t care about facts. Democrats “take on shame way too fast, and Republicans have none. Depending upon the media outlet that’s confronting them, they’ll take lying as a badge of honor.”
Michael Steele, former head of the Republican National Committee, is one of the few to escape from the brainwashing that has ruined the minds of his colleagues. Steele went to Duke University to speak to Adair’s students. Steele told them that DT has cemented the culture of lying. “A lot of that’s driven by the fact that they know what the consequences are,” said Steele, as quoted in Adair’s book, “but they are too afraid to say or do anything about it. I think the party has spiraled itself into a hole.” As a prolife in cowardice, the Republican party gets the award of the 21st century. An award of eternal shame.
Adair realized as he was researching this book that “the best way to explain lying in politics was to show how it affected the people involved.” Perhaps the most intriguing cast study he offers is his own relationship with Mike Pence. They lived close to one another and “Mike taught my kids how to play penny poker. When the Pences went away, my daughter took care of their dog.” They ate together and became close friends.
It was only later that Adair became aware of Pence’s predilection for lying. In a campaign he waged in 2000, Pence stated “Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill.” Adair writes that after he and DT were elected, “Mike’s slide into mendacity continued…In Mike’s case his lying seemed to be a product of political ambition.” When Adair asked Pence for an interview for this book, Pence did not even reply. Presumably, he has gone so far down the rabbit hole that he can’t distinguish a fact from a lie.
This is a fascinating and well-written book. While enlightening, I doubt that anyone who has not been brainwashed will turn the final page with a smile.
Beyond the Big Lie: The epidemic of political lying, why Republicans do it more, and how it could burn down our democracy is by Atria Books. It lists for $29.99
[HISTORICAL NOTE: The English word ‘fact’ derives from the Greek ‘facta,’ but for the Greeks it meant deeds as opposed to speeches. To quote Prof. Harvey Mansfield (Harvard Univ.), “It was a momentous step when truth came to be understood as fact, and that step was taken by Machiavelli. It was he who created the world of fact we now inhabit.” That step was taken 500 years ago.
ref: Machiavelli’s Effectual Truth by Mansfield (2023), Cambridge Univ. Press.]
Photo of Mr. Adair by C. Cunningham