Can Truth Prevail In Politics?

A bipartisan effort to fund the government through to next spring and provide funds for hurricane victims was scuttled by Elon Musk, who posted lies about the measure on Twitter.

Musk claimed Congress would receive a 40% pay raise when the cost of living adjustment was ~3.5%. He also asserted billions were included for a new stadium, which is false. He claimed the bill prevented investigations into the Jan 6 committee; it did not. However, the lies did their job, and the bill was scrapped, risking a government shutdown through the holidays and into next year.

One of the topics dominating the 2024 election season was grocery prices. One candidate discussed creating federal anti-price gouging laws, creating jobs, and bringing prosperity to the middle class. The other candidate flat-out promised to lower grocery prices. That candidate won.

But now, Trump has admitted that he can’t bring grocery prices down because that isn’t how American capitalism works. Candy bars no longer cost a nickel; Coca-Cola doesn’t cost a quarter. Continual low inflation is the goal to keep our economy strong. Deflation is generally a bad thing. So prices don’t typically go back down.

Despite breaking his campaign promise before even taking office, Republican voters aren’t mad at Trump. Polling from before and after the election shows that Republican voters shifted from thinking the economy was terrible to being good. Nothing changed about the economy during that time, and the US has had a strong, world-leading economy for years. Voters aren’t holding politicians accountable for the lies they tell.

Are we limited to a political system where the path to victory is telling people what they want to hear and fear-mongering them with outrageous lies? Or is there a way to explain the facts of a situation, offer a reasonable solution, and still win?

Given the level of misinformation and disinformation endlessly produced, getting the public to believe the truth isn't easy. It is even more challenging when people are angry. The message debunking the lies must be concise and easy to understand.

That means pointing out that in 2019, before the pandemic, 38 million Americans relied on federal food assistance, and outstanding credit card debt reached a then-record high of $927 billion. The pandemic and the following global high inflation didn’t create America's problems; they highlighted them.

Reducing the price of eggs won’t solve a systemic problem worsening for decades. Increasing wages will.

Truth struggles here again. Someone is always ready to respond to the talk of raising the federal minimum wage by claiming that prices will go up and put everyone right back where they were. Showing the data on how much lower the minimum wage is today than at its peak, how much more productivity has risen than wages, the funneling of wealth to CEOs, or the eroding middle class is too much information when someone can think of it as higher costs for businesses mean higher prices.

Instead, the case has to be clear: When you put $20 billion into the hands of billionaires, they hold onto it. When you give it to the middle and working class, they spend it. When the buying power of the minimum wage was at its highest, the middle class was the strongest, one working parent could support a family, and GDP growth was at its highest. A rising tide can’t help but raise all boats.

Trump also campaigned on ending the war in Ukraine before even taking office, but he now admits that ending that war is extremely difficult. He said he would bring peace to Gaza, only to threaten escalation. He said tariffs would solve all of our problems, only to have his administration now admit that tariffs would worsen the economy and raise prices.

The more challenging life is for Americans, the more susceptible voters are to believing the lie that someone can take office, snap their fingers on day one, and make everything better. People ignore the warning signs of lies when they’re desperate. Even worse, when people vote for change, and it doesn’t happen, they tune out and don’t vote. Over one-third of eligible voters didn’t go to the polls this year.

We need to find a way to educate voters in a way that they’ll engage with and present solutions they can get on board with, and most importantly, we need to deliver on those solutions. Politics needs to become exciting, not in the drama-fueled chaos it has become, but in how significantly it can improve lives when people vote for progress.

We must find a way to get truth into politics and make it a winning strategy.