Propaganda hurts our democracy

Lying in political campaigns and in general has become commonplace. Rarely does anyone use the law for redress and the Supreme Court has ruled on a challenged case that any law prohibiting free expression, true or not, is a violation of freedom of speech.

So there we are – in America it is OK to lie. The truth, once a virtue, has been replaced with political power.

Right-wing pundits have been getting away with lying for as long as I can remember. Of course they do – they get paid big time to destroy the truth no matter how many lies it takes. Most pundits are multimillionaires paid by billionaires. who gain tremendously by keeping loyal Republicans in office.

It is disheartening to know that pundit followers are mostly gullible, ill-informed, confused people, who are duped into voting against their own best interest. In all my life, I have never known so many very angry people who are angry at the wrong people and for the wrong reasons.

But the sad reality is that propaganda is the enemy of democracy. If we vote based on lies and misconception, what good is the vote?

Perhaps more important, once lies begin to spread, they become more than irresponsible words; they become dangerous ideology that will restrain the progress necessary to overcome our worst problems – climate change and a continuation of our very destructive foreign policy.

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 2:58 AM with the headline "Propaganda hurts our democracy."