The odor of mendacity: is the death of American democracy at hand?

[mnhtnbb]

I just caught the tail-end of the Paul Newman/Elizabeth Taylor
movie version of Tennesee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".
The set-up: Big Daddy enters the room where his eldest son(Gooper) and daughter-in-law(Sister Woman) are trying to pull legal shenanigans to get hold of Big Daddy's estate--before he's even died. He questions them about what all these papers are about and gets a 'nothing' in reply.
Here's the dialogue:


Big Daddy:

Ain't nothing more powerful
than the odor of mendacity.


- Didn't you notice it, Gooper?

Gooper:

- What, sir?



Big Daddy:

What about you, Sister Woman?



Big Daddy:

Didn't you notice an unpleasant smell
of mendacity in this room?



Sister Woman:

I don't even know what that is.


Big Daddy:

You can smell it. It smells like death.



I've been having a discussion regarding
the seriousness of lies on another thread,
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=41380&mesg_id=41476

Some think it was ok for Bill Clinton
to lie about his affair with Monica. I have always felt
that Clinton should have resigned when he was caught in his lie--but would have been better to have never lied at all. I lived through the Nixon Watergate lies; the Reagan Iran-Contra lies; the Clinton blow-job lies; and the last six years of Bush lies. Where has it brought us?


What is the importance of trust at the highest levels of government?
Can we survive the lies? Is the death of the American experiment in democracy at hand? Must we have impeachment to correct the wrongs?
Can we survive without it?

What say you, DU'ers?

[fooj]

1. The telling of lies...deliberate untruthfulness.

I feel as though we are surrounded by deception and lies 24/7. It's overwhelming. I hope we can survive this. I worry daily about the "odor of mendacity"...

Frankly, it scares the crap out of me.

[mnhtnbb]

2. Kickin' for myself. Anybody else have a comment?

[AndyA]

3. What Bill Clinton did with Monica was wrong.

He is a married man, and he should have known better. Lying to cover it up only made it worse, and in my opinion was a more severe infraction than the act itself. He was wrong, but instead of lying he should have just admitted it and told everyone to butt out, it was a private matter between him and his wife.

Monica was of legal age, and knew exactly what she was getting involved in. No harm there. She should have known better as well, but people do make mistakes, sometimes horrible ones, that given another place and time they would have not made.

I hold people in office to a higher standard. They, above everyone else, should know what is right and wrong, and they should be capable of earning the right of having a high trust factor with the American people, as well as the rest of the world.

But I think before this will stop, SOMEONE is going to have to be held accountable for their lies. And no better place to start than with Bush and Cheney. They have done a huge disservice to the American people and the world, and there must not be any pardons in their future. They must stand up and answer for what they have done.

I hope Pelosi and Reid will be part of the solution, and not part of the problem.

[mnhtnbb]

4. Hey, AndyA, interesting that we're both Edwards supporters with

a similar view on the lying issue.

[AndyA]

7. I do like Edwards.

And I'm most impressed with the fact he doesn't come from a political family, nor a privileged family. He has done a lot of hard work for the people over the last few years as well.

I do not agree with him on all the issues, but I do not get the feeling that he would not be willing to listen to opposing views and rethink his opinion. What a change from what we have now!

Plus, he has a great sense of humor, he can laugh at himself, he's smart, well spoken, presents himself well, looks and acts "Presidential" and I think could undo a lot of the damage from the * years.

He has my support for now, but I'm keeping an open mind at this point. I think we have to, because things can change so quickly in today's world. I believe he would make an excellent President, and would be a strong leader.

[CJCRANE]

5. It seems to be in its last throes n/t

[LouisianaLiberal]

6. When the entire governing principle is a lie

(break the country's financial base in order to eliminate entitlements, keep the people fearful in order to retain power, attempt to privatize government while couching the attempts in other terms, "reinterpret" the constitution to increase authoritarian powers, and on and on)

then everything the government does contains an element of a lie. Ergo, everything they say is a lie.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. I wrote a very long reply, but there was an error during my post, so I'm not

putting it all in here again. But I believe the death of the American experiment has already happened and most haven't been notified of it yet. Americans today seem obsessed with their need to be superior. The ideologies of the NeoCons/RW/'Christian' fundamentalists are all based on American superiority .. be it military might, capitalism, or religious. We've bred generations to hate and fear those who in anyway differ from ourselves, and the whole population seems enraptured with militarism. We are a fascist country pursuing our empire around the world.

[mnhtnbb]

9. I'm surprised at how few comments there are on this thread.

Is it just a forgone conclusion that our democracy is on its death bed?
Or does everyone think that's a load of crap. If so, where do you get your optimism when the newly elected Dems aren't willing to consider impeachment?

Will we ever have a government we can trust again?

[caseycoon]

10. I still have hope...

but not much confidence that our country will ever again be what it once was... Or do I mean what I THOUGHT it was?
Were our politicians honest once upon a time?
I don't know any more. I believe that the Dems/Liberals/Progressives will do more for the citizens than the Republicks.