(The above image was found at the website Workplace Psychology.)If you've read this blog for very long, then you know that I've referred to prominent Republicans as liars many times. I believe that they have no regard for the truth at all -- and simply say what they think people want to hear (especially their teabagger base). I don't believe it has always been this way, but the Republican Party of today is far different than the GOP of the past (when they had honest ideological differences with the Democratic Party).
And I'm far from the only one believing current Republican officials have only a distant and very tenuous relationship with the truth. And now there is a study verifying this fact. The study was done by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University (a non-profit non-partisan research organization). They studied 46 claims by Democrats and 54 claims by Republicans that were made between January 20th and May 22nd of 2013. Politifact was used as the arbiter of truth and falsehood. Here's what they found:
REPUBLICANS
11% -- entirely true
18% -- entirely or mostly true
52% -- entirely or mostly false
32% -- entirely false
DEMOCRATS
22% -- entirely true
54% -- entirely or mostly true
24% -- entirely or mostly false
11% -- entirely false
To be truthful, those numbers are not great for either the Republicans or Democrats. I personally believe a 100% should be rated as true for both parties, and the fact that it isn't shows there are politicians in both parties willing to stretch the truth (or outright lie). But when you compare the two, it is obvious that the GOP politicians are far less truthful than the Democrats. They had only 18% of their statements rated entirely or mostly true, while the Democrats had 54% rated as entirely or mostly true. Conversely, the Democrats had 24% rated as entirely or mostly false, while the Republicans had 52% rated as entirely or mostly false.
Why do these politicians get away with lying so much? Probably because the media, in a misguided attempt to be "fair", refuses to call these politicians to task for their lies. And that may be the worst part of this whole mess -- that the mainstream media has abandoned its primary task (to report the truth).
