Those of you familiar with Republican Senate nominee Christine O'Donnell might have heard about her past declaration that big, bad China is getting ready to take over (God Bless?) America. Shocking! I'd be marginally concerned if I didn't possess the ability to think for more than half a second. Aside from the fact that this claim makes exactly zero sense, the problem with O'Donnell's claim is that it's total bullshit. If Christine O'Donnell were in fact a spy, she did the one thing a spy is never supposed to do: She blew her cover. Has she learned nothing from James Bond? Oh, I suppose she doesn't see movies since they are products of the liberal heathen wasteland we call Hollywood. Point is, if Christine O'Donnell did in fact have knowledge of an imminent Chinese invasion, she would never reveal that information.
Christine O'Donnell is straight up lying. Sadly, there are plenty of people out there gullible enough to take her words as fact. She goes on TV, tells them China is trying to steal our freedom, and in come the fear votes. I'm not afraid of China. I'm afraid of shortsighted extremists finagling their way into Congress. I'm afraid of the fact that I live in a country where the people who let the entitled son of an oilman lead the country into a crippling depression for eight years are the same people who are now calling our president a failure after 18 months of cleaning up his predecessor's mess. I guess it never occurred to these "pioneers of freedom" that the economic recovery has been so slow to pick up because the very party they support is more concerned with stalling progress with filibusters in order to paint the majority as the enemy in upcoming elections than, you know, actually fixing the economy.
This isn't some idealistic call for honesty and transparency from politicians. This is America, after all. However, politicians are, in theory, the people we trust to govern us and make decisions on our behalf. Shouldn't there be some measure of accountability for those potential lawmakers who outright lie to our faces? I'm not talking about misguided people who buy into their own bullshit. We are all entitled to our own opinion, however wrong it may be. But it's a bit too much for me to stomach when people like Christine O'Donnell go on TV and tell blatant lies.. We can't make every person in America scrutinize the politicians, but maybe our government should do that. I find it fundamentally wrong that a candidate can say whatever she pleases just to win votes. It's not just dishonest, it's dangerous, and it should have no place in politics. Unfortunately, it does, but it doesn't have to be that way.
Lying under oath in court is a felny. So why do we allow candidates to lie on the podium? Why not put a rule in place to prevent this kind of behavior? What I'm proposing is that if a candidate tells a complete lie during a campaign, that candidate should be disqualified. Nothing extreme like jail or public flogging, just removal from the ballot. In theory, this should be universally accepted. You'd be hard pressed to find a politician who agrees lying should be allowed. It will never happen, but maybe it should. Despite what some tea baggers would have you believe, politics is not a popularity contest. This is a little more serious than running for class president. We're not competing for Facebook friends or Dancing with the Stars appearances. Do I have a problem with reducing American politics to a petty feud? You betcha!
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