My name is Murrell, and I've had a breakthrough politically. The reason political ads get so negative and nasty is because neither party has done anything worth bragging about, so their only chance to get elected is to make the other party look evil. After each debate I hear all the "fact checkers" pointing out all the lies one party told, but somehow they never talk about the lies BOTH candidates tell. The problem is both candidates lie. I didn't see much of the last debate between Obama and Romney, but I did see the exchange over whether or not Romney said Detroit should go bankrupt. The answer is simple and complicated. They are both lying, and they are both telling the truth.
Romney did write an op-ed piece for the New York Times where the title said something like "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt". If you read the article, it does mention the government should provide certain guarantees for the auto industry. Yes, Romney did say let Detroit go bankrupt, so Obama was right about that. But Romney was right in that he did say there should be the government protection he mentioned in the debate. So both Romney and Obama are lying and telling the truth at the same time.
When the government was fighting for Obamacare to pass, both sides had their spin machines out in full force. One party would run an ad saying it would strengthen Medicare and do all sorts of wonderful things, and the very next ad was the other party saying it would kill Medicare and practically lead to the destruction of all man-kind. Who am I supposed to believe when I don't trust either one? I keep hearing from the media that the Republicans are in love with insurance companies, but wasn't it the Democrats who passed a law requiring me to buy insurance?
Take your political party out of the equation for a moment. If I had told you right before the 2008 election that whoever replaces Bush (and remember how unpopular Bush was) in the White House will see the unemployment rate will get worse (6.7% in November '08 compared to 7.8% now), the National Debt will grow from $10 trillion to over $16 trillion, the price of gas will be almost $2 a gallon higher, and the troops in the Middle East would still not be home, would you think for a second that the candidate had any chance of re-election? Not only that, would you believe that people are calling it a "recovery"?
I've always believed Democrats and Republicans are, for the most part, identical. President Bush spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support a war very few people believed in. President Obama has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support economic and health care plans very few people believe in. The media portrays Mitt Romney as a millionaire who never balanced a budget and who wants to raise taxes on the middle class. The media loves President Obama despite the fact that he is a millionaire who hasn't balanced a budget and has already raised taxes on the middle class. (Obamacare only survived the Supreme Court because they determined it was a tax, and it's not going to be the upper class that pays it because they don't have health care.) There are Obama supporters criticizing Romney for agreeing too much with the President during the foreign policy debate. Have you ever criticized someone for agreeing with you? And somehow, Romney says the government can't create jobs yet still has a plan to create 12 million jobs if he's elected. I'd love to know how that works.
Ultimately, both parties lie. They tell you their version of the truth, not to convince you their way is the right way, but more to convince you the other way is not just wrong...it's dangerous.
The truth should not be subject to the interpretation of your political agenda. It should just be the truth.
Thanks for reading.
