Libertarians have always said that our rulers are wearing no clothes. Now it’s turning out that this figure of speech is the literal truth.
A day doesn’t go by without it being exposed that some ruling elite in the media or politics has exposed himself to some underling female.
This doesn’t surprise libertarians, who know that media and political power go hand in hand with such creepy behavior as standing with one’s genitals in hand in front of a female. That’s because being an influential person in both the media and politics requires a high degree of phoniness, hypocrisy, outright lying, and overall amorality or immorality.
Take Matt Lauer. I happened to watch the Today Show one time at a relative’s house and was struck by how much baloney he and his co-hosts were spewing. With feigned sincerity, sensitivity and authenticity, these skilled actors followed a politically-correct script full of superficial reporting, maudlin human-interest stories, and formulaic and sophomoric treatment of race and other hot-button issues.
Lauer et al. were smart enough to know that they had to put the right spin on their comments to be successful, and they were unscrupulous enough to do so. At the same time, their bosses demanded unscrupulousness of their stars but are now feigning surprise that the same stars behaved unscrupulously with females.
It’s even worse with politicians. Voters want their politicians to lie and steal on their behalf and then are shocked to find that the liars and stealers are unscrupulous in other ways.
The best politicians are the best liars and stealers. They get buildings, roads and statues erected in their honor for their ability to rob Peter to pay Paul while convincing Peter that he got something for nothing. They also have the skill of saying contradictory things to two different groups while coming across as sincere to both groups.
On a positive note, the dishonesty of politicians is what keeps citizens from killing each other. Like plumbers and undertakers, being a politician is a dirty job that someone has to do given the realities of human nature.
By the way, speaking of buildings named after politicians, the mayor of Phoenix wants to name a terminal at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport after John McCain, “in recognition of the senator’s public service.”
Imagine that: A politician thinks that politicians should be honored for their public service.
I’d rather honor roofers who fix leaking roofs, as they perform a real public service. An airport terminal should be named after Jose Gonzales, who fixed my roof in the blazing summer heat of Phoenix.
If someone thinks that McCain went into politics as a public service and not for fame and power, then that person doesn’t know McCain’s sordid history in the years following his courage as a prisoner of war.
Lowlights: McCain abruptly divorced his ailing, faithful wife to marry an Arizona beer baroness, whose father gave McCain a no-show job at his Anheuser-Bush distributorship so he could travel the state and get to know influential people. This would be the same father-in-law who would later be indicted for a shady deal involving horse racing. And it would be his daughter, the beer baroness and wife of John McCain, who was later caught stealing drugs from a charity, a theft that McCain asked the Arizona Republic newspaper to withhold reporting for a day so that he could have time to craft a public statement. The newspaper went along with charade, because a bigshot at the paper was so close to McCain that he had given McCain his own column to tout the glories of McCain. It just so happens that the bigshot claimed to be a former fighter pilot and would parade around Phoenix in his old uniform. It was a lie—a lie that McCain, as a former fighter pilot, had to see through. McCain’s deceitful nature (political nature) also was in evidence when he first ran for Congress. He was living with the baroness in a different district from the one with the open congressional seat, so he lied that he was living at his father-in-law’s house, which was in the right district. Later, among other shady behavior, he was a main character in the Keating Five scandal.
All of this is of course overlooked by those whose self-interest has been served by McCain.
It’s the same with those who overlooked Bill Clinton’s sexual crimes and harassment, as well as with those who want to overlook the depravity of Judge Roy Moore or Al Franken.
It is said that politics makes strange bedfellows. Based on recent events, politics makes perverted fellows who try to bed your wife or daughter or show them an erection. Then we erect statues in their honor. Who is the sickest here?
Libertarians have always ranted about the myths, totems, fairy tales, and propaganda put out by the government about itself and by politicians about themselves. As a result, libertarians are branded as unpatriotic cynics and fruitcakes.
The criticism is warranted, in the sense that libertarians refuse to accept that myths, totems, fairy tales, and propaganda are the glue that holds together the body politic. Once the glue melts, the government and other institutions lose their power and influence, and the masses become libertarians.
God help us. Imagine a nation where most people are like me.
