LAST TIME, I used Liz Cheney's recent willingness to misrepresent—well, let's be frank—to lie about the motives and values of defense lawyers in a very unpatriotic way as a sort of morality tale, about the willingness to place the perfectly good value of loyalty above all others, and particularly above the value of truth.
But this isn't really about Liz Cheney, personally, even though spiritual issues are, of course, personal in the end.
She just happened to be born into the wrong crowd.
It's about a growing pattern among the leadership on the right—a willingness in general to lie for the good of the team.
Clinton lied, of course, about a personal affair, as have many on both sides of the aisle, but I'm not talking about lies concerning personal scandals, motivated by a desire to protect one's reputation.
I'm talking about an increasing and intentional desire to distort the American people's view of reality for political purposes.
Others on the right have told us that:
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Obama wasn't born in America, when he clearly was.
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A paragraph in the health reform bill instituted "death panels", when it had nothing to do with death panels.
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Democrats put that paragraph in the bill, when it was inserted by a Republican.
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America didn't torture, when we did.
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Torture got us information that it didn't.
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Aluminum cylinders could be used for a nuclear program when they couldn't.
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Reconciliation would be used to pass the major health care reform bill, when it would only be used to make a limited number of fixes in that bill.
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Reconciliation is a "nuclear option" which would destroy the Senate, when Republicans had both used it themselves, and defended it as a perfectly appropriate rule.
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There is no scientific consensus on climate change, when there is.
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Obama was talking about Palin when he used the old phrase about lipstick on a pig, when he clearly wasn't.
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Obama never used the word, "terror", when he has used it repeatedly.
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Health care reform is a "government takeover" of the health sector, when it's a program designed to make the free market work.
The list above doesn't even touch on the stealth campaigns, like those conservative emails which have said or implied that
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Harry Reid is related to a notorious outlaw named Remus Reid, when he isn't,
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Reid's office spun an elaborate set of lies to cover up his connection to this fictional relation, which it didn't,
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Al Gore somehow stole the peace prize from an old woman who helped Jews escape the Nazis, when she wasn't even eligible,
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Obama is a Muslim, when he isn't,
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John McCain had an out of wedlock black daughter, when he didn't (yes, they even lie about each other during elections),
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The EIA estimates there are 503 billion barrels of oil in the Bakken Formation, which it doesn't,
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The Obama administration is against Christmas, which it isn't,
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The Obama administration issued a stamp commemorating a Muslim holiday, when it was the Bush administration, and
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Offered us a whole list of lies about American Muslims in general.
I could go on for some time, as readers of this blog will testify.
You can see the same conservative influences on the Democratic side of the aisle, when Bart Stupak tells people that:
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The health care bill will mandate public funds for abortions, when it clearly does the opposite, and
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His amendment would merely put a stop to this, when it would actually make it nearly impossible for any but very wealthy women to exercise their right to choice.
His loyalty, in this case, isn't to his party, but to the Catholic Church—but it's still a case of loyalty winning out over truth.
It's still a case, as it is with Liz Cheney's ad, of being willing to lie if it helps the team—of feeling no shame about misleading your fellow citizens if its done for a "good" cause.
This is a temptation we all face sooner or later.
But it reminds me of a story:
When I was writing my Ph.D. dissertation I became embroiled in a department conflict.
Because of an academic disagreement, one of the professors on my graduate committee was determined to block all of my mentor's students from graduation.
Word had gotten out that I was his next target, and that he was already determined to get my dissertation, which he had not yet seen one word of, rejected.
I remember one day, sitting in my mentor's office as we carefully put together a strategy for getting my dissertation past the departmental political issues.
My mentor, a man of great spiritual character, was working out how we would phrase a particular request about a very small issue, when he suddenly stopped, gazed off into space, and mumbled to himself,
"Would that be true?"
He thought about it, decided that the phrasing was honest, and we continued our discussion.
He probably never knew I noticed that comment, but it made a lasting impression on me.
In the midst of a political battle with an unreasonable man, working for a cause that he absolutely believed in, he was unwilling to lie, even to his opponent.
Cheney, conservatives in general, and, indeed, all of us could learn from people like him.
At least, that's what I think today.
