Take anything a politician says cum granis saltis
Their intellectual universe does not extend beyond seizing and maintaining power for its own sake
It is astonishing that anyone would give credence to anything a politician says. Every word has an ulterior motive unrelated to truth: seizing or maintaining power for the sake of power as a substitute for philosophical and intellectual emptiness.
In the summer of 1928, as the Great Depression impended, Republican presidential nominee Herbert Hoover declared that America was “nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of our land.”
President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 touted “he kept us out of war” to win reelection and then promptly got us into World War I in a fanciful utopian quest to make the Sermon on the Mount govern international relations by force of arms.
The 2024 presidential aspirants are all earmarked by lies or distortions. Beware of politicians bearing gifts or displaying sympathy. Nothing dries faster than a politician’s tear.