Can a leader lie to you? I just want to start this post off with saying my particular basis of beliefs. I have been a devoted Democrat since the Kerry Vs. Bush election. I consider myself a liberal but I grew up in a small town where Ronald Reagan is considered the George Washington of the 21stcentury and Obama is a communist Muslim terrorist from Mars that is trying to corrupt the nation with his Obamacare. So when I talk any type of politics I try to appease both sides. Any ways I was surfing around on the internet and I found this pretty interesting article that talks about the recent presidential debate.Obama Vs.Romney Presidential Fact Check.As you guys read both candidates were caught fudging the truth. Is that a good or bad quality to have in a leader? Are they are lying because they are determined to win the position. If so will they take that determination into to all their tasks that they pursue? If a leader does unsavory things to get things great things done is he considered a snake or a hero.
As Americans I think we accept a lot of shady things. For instance, we accepted Andrew Jacksons (the guy on the twenty dollar bill) who basically ordered troops to kill hundreds of Native Americans and was a slave owner. He also solved the national debt at that time and he also fixed some critical issues with the National Bank. I personally believe that he was a hell of a president and that he saved America from collapsing. Is Andrew Jackson a bad leader? So when it comes to the next leader of the free world can he lie? When it comes done to the candidates Romney have been in the middle of the road since day one. When a person is in the middle of the road trying to appease everyone they are going to get hit by a car. In my opinion Mitt Romney is just trying to get elected at all cost. When it comes to President Obama it seems like he is just trying to make his deficiencies look better. For example, when he talks about the four Trillion Deficit Plan. All he was trying to do was make an accomplishment look better than it actually is. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty the debate was not really that great on both sides.
When it comes down to it does to it I think that an average leader lies to you and a great leader sticks with the facts. How do you feel??
October 9th, 2012 at 10:47 am
I think for this topic we have to look a little beyond the leader as well and evaluate the people’s role in this behavior. Clearly with the presidential election, the candidates are greatly concerned with pleasing the people. So this brings up the question “are people more concerned with getting an answer, whether it is right or wrong, or having a 100% correct answer?” I know that personally if I did not fact check what the candidates were telling me, I would probably have a better impression of the person with all of the answers over the person who keeps saying “I don’t know.” And lets be honest here – who actually fact checks everything for their personal reasons? This is particularly true when you have someone born and raised to vote for a certain party, where they are more likely to trust the candidate up front. Its not necessarily to get things done, but instead to placate the voters. This is why I think that this “people element” is the strongest motivating force behind the rampant lying of (particularly political) leaders.
October 9th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
To answer your first question: “Can leaders lie?”
Why yes. Yes they can.
To answer your second question: “Both candidates were caught fudging the truth. Is that a good or bad quality to have in a leader?”
Why, that’s not a factual question, but rather an opinionated one. In my opinion, I’d rather have a leader that lies for the benefit of all mankind rather than a leader that tells the truth, which destroys the entire universe.
To answer your third question: “Are they are lying because they are determined to win the position?”
Yes.
To answer your fourth question: “If so will they take that determination into to all their tasks that they pursue?”
Probably not every single task that they pursue, but I believe all tasks that require that kid of determination.
To answer your fifth question: “Is Andrew Jackson a bad leader?”
He’s not a bad leader because he can lead. It doesn’t matter if his decisions were right or wrong, what makes a leader is their ability to lead, not their ability to make the correct choice. Asking if he was a “leader that made the correct choices” is a different story.
To answer your sixth question: “So when it comes to the next leader of the free world can he lie?”
As answered in the initial preponderance, everyone has the ability to lie.
To answer your last question: “How do you feel??”
My current mood is intellectual. But what is feeling other than an emotional state or reaction? It works unseen, at all silent hours, and secret times
and places; and, like death when summoning his diseases, pounces upon its
devoted subject, and lays him prostrate in the dust. Like the great enemy of
man, it has shown its cloven foot, and put the public upon its guard against its
secret machinations.
October 10th, 2012 at 11:21 am
I think lying is sometimes an effective process for a leader to practice because there are certain things that our country as citizens shouldn’t know. My main example would be issues that the President faces about our national security would be too much for our country to hold with out causing riots or mass panic.
October 10th, 2012 at 12:13 pm
I agree that not only Americans, but as people we accept shady things, is at the cost of ignorance and we become comfortable with what we don’t know. How many people, out of 7 billion fact-check everything that comes their way? In Obama and Romney’s case, we all know that it is simply a matter of politics.The game is to make yourself look the most presentable, dependable to your audience. In a perfect world, there would be no lies, because nothing would be behind the veil. But how would we be able to handle the truth? I think leaders choose to be tactful about what they say to protect us and our reactions.
October 10th, 2012 at 4:19 pm
It’s an interesting paradox for sure–we value honest, transparent leaders but even their honestly and so-called transparency can be fake.
It’s so hard to draw a line too because people aren’t perfect, and leaders (although I’m not saying its excusable), under the pressures and burdens of leadership, are more prone to imperfection-or at least their imperfections are made more public.
Another perspective: sometimes, like for national safety, leaders have to lie to us, or not give the full truth for our own sakes and the safety of our nation.
I think that in a perfect world, a perfect leader sticks to the facts. But I acknowledge that no one is perfect, and no administration is perfect. Personally, I do not look to the government as what will save us in the end. I think we need something a lot bigger than men and governments to redeem our broken world.
October 13th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
It is an interesting thing that most people in our society would say that they value honesty, but we are all lied to everyday, rather it be small or large and we don’t seem to question it. However, when you get into bigger issues, such as on a national level, I do think that lying can be used as a means of protection. You know what they say, “You can’t handle the truth.” Also, I think you bring up a good point about Andrew Jackson. If a leader makes both influentially positive and influentially negative impacts, are they a good learer? My first instinct is to say yes because even if the change is bad, change was still evoked. So the real question to me isn’t if he was a bad leader, but rather was he a positive leader? He accomplished his goals, regardless of what they were, so he was a good leader. But if the impact of his accomplishments caused more damage then good, then I would say he is a negative leader and vice versa.