Political Appearance or Truth?
by John Ransom
Issue 110 - June 25, 2008

We are in the Age of Talking Points. The problem is that the distinction between what is campaign rhetoric and what is true has gotten so muddied that it's often impossible to tell where the dirt starts and the clear water begins.

That's especially dangerous for politicians today who live in a surreal world of TV appearances, press releases, speeches and other communications media in which they fight every day to define the truth (and the appearance of it) often on a minute by minute basis.

At a time where political analysis is practiced, not day-by-day but minute-by-minute by wire-service press organizations that are supposed to be non-partisan, it's only natural that some confuse the appearance of truth with the truth. And it's also natural for those that frame the appearance of truth to confuse skill in creating appearance of truth with actual righteousness.

Like the Emperor and his new clothes, the natural tendency for politicians in every age is to get confused as to the difference between the truth and the appearance of truth. Successful politicians are often surrounded by fawning staff and, because of the incumbent advantage, they are encouraged to believe that what they think of others is more important than what others think of them. After all, these are the "great people" who create the truth for the rest of us.

Because of that ingrained arrogance, it's becoming increasingly more important that a story sells rather than it is true, whether you're the New York Times that does the selling, or the president's press secretary. Indeed, as was recently shown, presidential press secretaries sell many more books if those books contain an apologia for allegedly pushing false stories to the media. It's almost as if our society says: "A book wouldn't be a bestseller if it weren't true."

So it's only natural that the incumbent advantage the GOP has enjoyed for these many years in the US House, Senate, governors mansions and state houses did its normal magic and eventually moved the Party to be one that governed not by the substance of what it believed but by the appearance of what it believed.

It's also only natural that people, including many in the GOP eventually, caught on to that fact.

What the Republican Party needs today is a set of grand ideals that GOP really represents, a sort of "True Deal" that represents a pledge to govern by certain unchangeable truths in fact and not govern as only appearance dictates. It should also contain challenge to accomplish certain goals for the American people that underpin those truths, come what may.

Some of the "True Deal" points could include:

1. Our tax code is broken and needs to be changed.

2. Never go to war without the American people getting a real assessment of the causes and issues involved. They don't have to agree, but they have to be told clearly.

3. Energy Security comes through more choices including more traditional choices and more alternative choices but each choice has to be economically viable without government regulation.

4. Our healthcare system will be improved by more choices not by a government take over.

5. Social Security is broken and needs to be phased out.

6. We should commit to a fixed level of funding to the Federal government's primary purpose, national defense- say 5 percent of GDP.

7. The Federal Government should be smaller in real-terms not smaller in Washington terms.

8. Protecting life, in all stages, and liberty, in all forms, is the purpose of government. When government does less than that or more than that, it threatens both life and liberty.

9. The Republican Party should all be committed to the idea of rotation in public offices, that is: self-imposed term limits.

10. Free trade ensures American's get the best products for the lowest cost.

The True Deal shouldn't go into such specifics as to be limiting but it should be broad enough to include the range of truths embraced by the GOP.

Its strength should be that the values traditionally embraced by conservatives (and Americans) of all sorts, from fiscal policy to life issues, always rely upon an appeal to truth first.

Like our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, which is elegant in its reliance upon self-evident truths, the GOP True Deal should rely upon those truths that contain no sophistries or muddiness.

In should be elegant in its simplicity instead of ingenious in its rationale.

America is tired of the ingenious no matter how plausible it might sound.

What they want is the truth.

If only the GOP will give it to them.

John (Bam) Ransom is a Masters in Fine Arts candidate (Non Fiction Writing) at Spalding University, runs his own freelance writing practice in Denver, Colorado and is on the board of advisors for Slipglass, a computer security company that works in the defense and intelligence sectors.