Louis Roney: The big lie

Thomas Sowell lights up when thoughts of magnitude fill his head. Sowell is a man who concerns himself with ideas that are both sparkling and weighty:

“…The thesis of both media liberals and political liberals is that there are vast millions of people who work hard all their lives and still remain poor. The next chorus of this song is that only the government can save the day for such people. The grand finale is that politicians need to take more money out of your paycheck to buy the votes of those to whom they give it. They don’t express it like that, of course, but that is what it amounts to.

…By focussing [sic] on those who work hard all their lives and still remain poor — no more than 3 percent of the population —and telling their personal stories endlessly, liberals can present the Big Lie with a human face.

There is an even bigger lie behind all this. That lie is the implication that the purpose of all this hand-wringing is to help the poor. But the poor are just the bait in a political bait-and-switch game.

The fraud becomes apparent the moment anyone suggests that there be means tests, so that the taxpayers’ money will be spent only on the poor.

Those who pose as the biggest champions of the poor are almost invariably the biggest opponents of means tests. They want bigger government and the poor are just a means to that end.

Whether the issue is housing, medical care or innumerable other things, the argument will be made that the poor are unable to get some benefit, and that the government ought to provide for them. But the minute you accept that, the switch takes place and suddenly we are no longer talking about some benefit confined to the poor, but about ‘universal health care’ or ‘affordable housing’ as a ‘right’ for everyone.”

—Thomas Sowell, “Big lie of the year” published Feb. 24, 2004 on TownHall.com (Economist Sowell is one of the top thinkers among todays outspoken political pundits.)

I, dear reader, lived through the most scandalous days of “the Big Lie” when Adolf Hitler was trying to see if his latest whopper could possibly top his preceding lies. The whole world knew that Hitler was a liar, and that he was proudly puffed up at the success of his endless inflammable prevarications.

The trouble with liars is that when they openly admit they’re lying, the once-in-a-while-truth must somehow be identified and it must hold still long enough to be scrutinized. Even Hitler told the truth once in a while whether he wanted to or not.

We have in the White House at this time a man who comes across as a prevaricator first class! His fabrications and those of his Attorney General are monstrous examples of straying from the paths of righteous veracity. However, we must daily admit to ourselves that we elected this presidential scamp to lead us in these times when the truth is perilous enough, and untruths can be our undoing.

Great lies have produced great belly laughs, and have been put to good use by the likes of Mark Twain, Irwin S. Cobb, and even Will Rogers. These three giants were self-identified as stretchers of the truth in behalf of a good laugh— no ill-will intended. Twain and Rogers were outsized mentalities who uttered wisdom with a smile that became known worldwide as “American Humor.” Only deep minds reach down to the level where tragedy meets vulnerability and brakes into a grin.

Unfortunately, when a lying liberal is president, it is never a laughing matter for the rest of us.

About Roney: Harvard’42—Distinguished Prof, Em.—UCF 2004 Fla. Alliance for the Arts award (Assisted by beautiful wife Joy Roney)