Joel Selbin: In politics beliefs and opinions outweigh facts and evidence

The Harvard Physics Professor Lisa Randall wrote in Time magazine (Oct. 3, 2011):  “Today’s Politicians seem more comfortable involking God and religion than they do presenting facts or numbers. …  But when science and reason get shortchanged, so does America’s future.”

I think that our future is even more threatened by what we are incessantly hearing from the Tea Party, most Republican candidiates and the hard right media:

Global warming is just a hoax; evolution is a myth; medicare, social security, income tax are unconstitutional; federal laws on food safety,  minimum wages, bans on child labor, and environmental protection are unconstitutional; Obama is a socialist and his policies have produced the current national debt; our current debt is held mostly by China and other foreign countries; the U.S tax rate is too high and is one of the largest in the world; cutting taxes results in more tax revenue; cutting taxes will create jobs; the budget can be balanced by cutting programs that help ordinary Americans, such as Head Start, Medicaid, Food Stamps, the EPA, unemployment insurance, etc.; the government can’t work until the national debt is eliminated and a balanced budget is imposed; regulatory agencies, social programs, IRS and the like are all bad; the estate tax hurts farmers and small businesses;the U.S Corporate tax rate is higher than in other industrialized countries; and many more deceptions, lies and hypocrisy.

Some who spread these lies may actually believe them because, in politics especially, beliefs and opinions often outweigh facts and evidence.  And what is really sought by politicians is power.

Undoubtedly we will continue to hear lies for many months yet  with  serious negative effects on this country.  As was once said:  “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Joel Selbin
Boulder