Today I will discuss politics, but I am certain that I can do that with every one of you, and I will take a strong position without alienating anyone. I am sure my argument will find favor with both the right wing and the left. I predict unanimity both with Sen. Mike Lee and with Utah State Sen. Jim Dabakis.
So, here it is: Donald Trump, the candidate who called his two greatest opponents "Lyin' Ted" and "Crooked Hillary," is himself being characterized as the most dishonest politician ever to run for office. According to numerous published sources, Trump has told lots of lies about Lyin' Ted, about Hillary and al the others he vanquished.
Now comes the pushback. Lee should be pleased by this, because Lee is a friend (possibly the only Washington friend) of Ted Cruz who Trump lied out of the race. Dabakis should be pleased, because he not only hates everything about Trump but is also a Democrat. For me, it's a win-win.
Let's start with fact checks. Politicus USA reports that 91 percent of the things Trump says are false and the other "9 percent of the things Donald Trump says are mostly true." PolitiFact awarded Mr. Trump for telling the 2015 "Lie of the Year." Huffington Post once assigned five and a half reporters to do in-depth checking of a 12,000 word transcript of a Trump town hall meeting to find that in one single hour of talking, there were 71 instances of "inaccurate, misleading or deeply questionable" claims, "one falsehood every 169 words."
The Washington Post recently published an article titled "All of Donald Trump's Four-Pinocchio ratings in one place." Here are some of his claims that were mentioned:
• His connection between Mexican immigrants and crime
• The slurs against women pointed out by Fox News Host Megyn Kelly to which he denied
• The real unemployment rate is 42 percent
• We are importing 200,000 Syrian refugees (it's 10,000)
• The Bush White House tried to muzzle his Iraq War opposition
• Thousands of new Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attack
• The wives of 9/11 hijackers had warning of what was going to happen, even though the terrorists were all single
• He predicted bin Laden's plans to harm America, even though bin Laden had told the news media
• The border wall will only cost $8 billion, then $12 billion, versus engineering estimates of $25 billion
• He will save $300 billion a year on medicare drugs, even though those drugs cost $78 billion
• Trump University received an A rating from Better Business Bureau, not the D- It really got
• He built his empire from a $1 million loan from Dad, not the $40 million inheritance and extensive loan guarantees
• Kasich helped Lehman Brothers destroy the U.S. economy
• Scott Walker drove his state from a $1 billion surplus to a $2 billion deficit
• Scores of recent migrants to the U.S. are terrorists
• The National Enquirer story on Cruz's father was not denied
• Hillary Clinton started the birther movement.
Now this is only The Washington Post's long lists of Donald Trump lies. There are so, so many other reports both by liberals and conservatives, debunking Trumped up lies, such as that Obama was going to sign an executive order to take away our guns, or that his campaign is self-funded, or that he knew of a two-year-old who got autism a week after his vaccination, or that he was the one to get Ford to move an automobile plant from Mexico to Ohio, or that he was now against abortion and wasn't previously for it, or that he hasn't changed his position on minimum wage, or climate change, or that lots of people don't sue him, or that he never was involved in filing for bankruptcy (uh, make that four bankruptcies), or that several of his businesses haven't failed, or that he has at least ten times more money than Deutsche Bank has estimated.
There's an old joke that goes, how do you tell if a politician is telling a lie? The answer is his lips are moving. Donald Trump is much too quick to tell you that he is not a politician, but, just look at the evidence. Just saying he is not a politician very well may be his biggest lie of all, proving beyond doubt that he really is one.
We know that most elected Republicans in Utah went all in a few months ago to publicly back Ted Cruz. I think it is safe to say that they really are not Donald Trump fans. And we know from the Twitter-verse that Democrats are so incensed by the Donald that they are ready to do just about anything to stop the lying Trump the GOP couldn't stop.
If there is one saving grace to the Trump candidacy it is how marvelously Mr. Trump has been able to bring all political sides together like no president or speaker of the House has been able to do in almost two decades. With no disrespect to the advice from my parents, it looks like we all can find a way to discuss politics and still get along with each other. We just have to find topics we all agree on.
Now, what was that other hot button subject they told me never to discuss? Oh, yes. Maybe next time I will write a column about religion.
Send feedback to comments@cityweekly.net
