I’ve been following the story of poor George Santos, the U.S. Representative from New York who has been exposed for lying about everything from his employment to his education to his heritage. Reportedly, Mr. Santos also faces potential criminal consequences for alleged misuse of campaign funds. (He has also been accused of buying puppies with bad checks, but he testified that someone had stolen his checkbook and forged his signature.)
A recent story reported in the Tennessee Lookout referred to another Republican politician — U.S. Representative Andy Ogles — as a ‘fabulist’. Meaning, a ‘serial liar’.
Apparently, Rep. Ogles “lied about his college major, and he relayed fabulist fantasies about being an economist, the nature of his work at a think tank, and being an internationally recognized sex trafficking expert…”
But fortunately for these Republicans, lying has now become eminently respectable. For example, the Washington Post Fact Checker tallied 30,573 false or misleading claims made by Republican President Donald Trump during his four years in office.
That’s 21 erroneous claims a day. On average. Sometimes you can’t help it. You simply have to lie.
This is not a new phenomenon, however.
Back in the days of ancient Greece, Medea, a direct descendant of the sun god Helios, got into an argument with Thetis, a sea-goddess (and incidentally, the mother of Achilles. Or so she claimed.) The argument concerned which of the two was most beautiful. Unable to reach agreement, Medea and Thetis appointed the Cretan Idomeneus as the judge, who ruled that Thetis was the beauty contest winner. In a fit of anger, Medea called all Cretans liars, and cursed them to never say the truth.
(Cretans live on the island of Crete. A place I hope never to visit.)
This story about Medea’s curse was related by Ptolemy Chennus, an Alexandrine grammarian. Then, the situation got a bit dicey when a noted Cretan philosopher Epimenides made the following statement:
“All Cretans are liars.”
This statement resulted in considerable confusion among the philosophers of the day (600 BC). If Epimenides, being a Cretan, was telling the truth about Cretans being liars, then he wasn’t a liar. But if all Cretans are liars…. well, you can see the problem.
The fact that all Cretans are liars got a mention later, in the Bible, in the letter from Paul to Titus.
One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons.” This testimony is true.
From what I can tell, the “prophet of their own” — Epimenides — had said nothing about evil beasts or idle gluttons. So maybe Paul was exaggerating? Or maybe lying?
There’s a reason I’m thinking so much about Epimenides lately, in relation to Republicans. I’ve not yet heard any prominent Republican make the claim that “All Republicans are liars.” And of course, if a Republican did make that claim, he would either be lying or telling the truth, and… well, you can see the problem.
But it gets worse. Because these people are all claiming to be ‘Republicans’. But, are they Republicans?
Because, if all Republicans are liars, then maybe… they are not really Republicans.
You can see the problem.
I hope Daily Post readers will take what I’ve written here in the proper context, considering that I’m a Republican.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.