How do you tell if a politician is lying?

their lips are moving…

Research into how often humans lie has confirmed what a lot of us (especially those of use who spend a lot of time at the federal or state capitols) have always suspected. While everyone lies, politicians lie more than average individuals. (h/t: ctv news.):

For more than two decades, researchers of different stripes have examined humanity’s less-than-truthful underbelly. This is what they have found: We all stretch the truth. We learned to deceive as toddlers. We rationalize our fabrications that benefit us. We tell little white lies daily that make others feel good.

Now magnify that. Politicians distort the truth more often, use more self-justifications and deceive in larger ways, and with more consequences, experts in psychology and political science say.

Many of the researchers say that politicians lie because that is what the voters want:

“The lies that we accept from politicians right now are lies that are seen as acceptable because it’s what we want to hear,” like a spouse saying that an outfit flatters you, Feldman said.

Or perhaps we feel that lying is necessary.

“People want their politicians to lie to them. The reason that people want their politicians to lie them is that people care about politics,” said Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. “You understand that Washington is a dirty place and that lying is actually very helpful to get your policies implemented.”

Read the whole story here.

While many people may want politicians to lie to them, the liberty movement that sprung up in the wake of Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns shows that there are many individuals hungry for the truth about economics, foreign policy, and the proper role of government in a free society. In fact, one of the biggest advantages our movement has is that as the failures of the welfare-warfare-regulatory state, as well as the fiat money system that prop it up, become clearer, more Americans will realize they have been lied to and will seek out the truth,

Campaign for Liberty’s mission is to mobilize Americans who know the truth to force the politicians to reject the lie of big government and embrace the truth that people are better off when government’s power over them is strictly limited. Please join our efforts.