A government that lies but never deceives

Richard Fernandez has a very deep insight into the political and cultural sea-change taking place under Obama.

Excerpt:

The Lying King

"Was the White House involved in the IRS’s targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was. 

President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an “independent” agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies. 

But that’s not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn’t need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he’d like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action. 

Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. “He put a target on our backs, and he’s now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?” asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot..."

Listen to the “dog whistle,... don’t listen to the fancy, eloquent speeches. That’s just for show. The real goodies are inside the wrapper...

The Obama administration may be the first since World War Two to attempt a new and innovative policy best described as “trust me to lie to you.” If you were astute, then you wouldn’t believe us. If you were sophisticated you would make the default assumption that the... policy was for public consumption, since only rubes and simpletons could have possibly believed that the Obama administration was telling the truth...

[But] trust exists for very good reason, even among gangsters. In ordinary commerce its value is obvious. Many products rely on trust: the security of our communications and data storage; the integrity of accounting; the impartiality of the public institutions. Whether we are using Office 360, email, or Google Drive, a medical storage device that stores our sugar levels and blood pressure numbers or files an income tax return, the presumption is that the information we generate is reasonably private. Once that expectation is destroyed, once we are certain that a political hack whose principal qualification is snooping has been appointed to head Obamacare, then an economic cost is inevitably incurred. 

Lying isn’t free. 

One of the reasons that the United States has remained the last refuge for money fleeing instability abroad is that those investors trust its institutions. They believed — reasonably until now — that in America the rule of law reigned supreme. They thought — until the administration cast the question into serious doubt — that America was not the banana republic that the possessors of those fortunes sought to flee. That’s why the money comes to America and not, let us say, to the Congo. 

Similarly... the word of an American president was trusted enough in the past to make the actual use of arms unnecessary. All that was necessary was for the United States to send a signal and that message would have the effect of armies. 

But what happens when an administration makes dishonesty and untrustworthiness a feature? What occurs when the president conditions us to subliminally think — perhaps in spite of ourselves — that in God we Trust but of Obama we can expect nothing but lies? What then? 

Well, we’re about to find out.

Please read the whole thing. It's brilliant. Fernandez describes Obama's salient trait: he lies reliably. He lies like he breathes, but you never need to guess what he's doing or what he thinks-- in Benghazi, he spun it anyway he had to to win the election. In the IRS scandal, of course the White House organized and endorsed the thuggery. In the AP phone scandal, of course the Administration used it to intimidate reporters who interfered with pre-election messaging. On Sebilus' slimy pressure on health care regulatees to fund Obamacare implementation-- that's just how gangsters do things. On gay marriage, of course Obama was always for it-- he lied for a while that he was against it, but nobody actually believed that, and nobody was surprised when he came out for it. Yawn.

Obama lies reliably. You know exactly what he's up to (filthy hard-left politics), and you know that he's always lying about it, but on one level it doesn't matter that he lies, because everyone-- on the left and in the middle and on the right-- knows exactly what he's doing. He is perhaps the most dishonest, and most predictable, president in modern times.

How will our new normal-- a government that lies but never deceives-- change us?

The change could be more radical than we imagine. Lying-without-deceit is a hallmark of totalitarian government. 'People's Democratic Republic of...' . It fosters not only cynicism, which can be good (why trust the government anyway?), but it sows the seed of an amoral polity. It unlinks principle and acts.

Look at Russia. Read the rights guaranteed in the Soviet Constitution. All lies, and no deceit. Every Russian knew what it said, and every Russian knew what it meant. Every Russian knew they were ruled by sanctimonious gangsters. Even after the goons are tossed out, the rot lingers. In the long run, it changes people's souls. Look at Russia now.

Rule by lying-without-deceiving creates a polity akin to the government itself: their only principles are their interests.