Harry Harelik: In a post-truth world, character most important election issue
No matter with whom you talk these days, regardless of political stances, most everyone is completely tired of the election chaos. Americans are worn out from the years of controversy, division and infighting. Confusion knows no bounds, regardless of political affiliation. Finding trust in a candidate or party has become frustratingly difficult.
And perhaps at the top of most folks' grievances is the tendency for untruths to be spread. If one votes believing fallacies, conspiracy theories and outright lies, there would be a general belief that vote was cast in error. There would also be a tendency to believe the individual or groups who spread these proven falsehoods are either doing so out of ignorance or, worse, doing so out of an intentional effort to mislead others.
To make matters worse, the spreading of false information continues despite warnings in all manner of communication — printed matter, videos, television and social media — to fact-check information before forwarding it on to others. Fact-checking has even become necessary when listening to nominees to the highest office in the land.
Yet time after time, falsehoods are promoted and those seeing and hearing those items either perceive they are false and fact check them or, more often, fall for the information hook, line and sinker and then pass it on to others.
An excellent example of this issue is the overwhelming number of individuals and groups posting, particularly on social media, that because the "current administration" has disbursed so much in funds to support massive numbers of undocumented aliens, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has no funds to help American citizens dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene's and Milton's recent brutal wind, rain and storm surge in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina. FEMA personnel and, indeed, the governors of the states affected by the hurricane have denounced the funding rumor as blatantly false but individuals continue to forward the falsehood to others. Are they so caught up in their own political beliefs that they believe pursuing fallacies to prove a point and win an election is more important than pursuing the truth?
Another example of promoting fallacies is the twisting of an election proposal to tax the unrealized gain in assets. Numerous postings warn that this means the gain in value of a person's residence would be taxed, and "even your aging mother's house would be subject to this tax." In truth, the proposal, which would have little chance of congressional passage, is meant to potentially tax individuals only with a wealth exceeding $100 million.
Fact-checking can expose false information readily, such as: Tim Walz's claim that he was in China for the Tiananmen Square uprising; Kamala Harris' claim that she has made it clear for years that she supported fracking; JD Vance's claim of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, eating neighbors' pets; or Donald Trump's claim that every new job created in the last two years went to illegal aliens; and, finally, the claim that Democrats control the weather and were responsible for hurricanes hitting Florida.
When one considers the disproven belief that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., was merely a group of tourists viewing the seat of U.S. government despite actual photography of hundreds of individuals scaling walls, breaking down crowd barriers, beating Capitol police, breaking windows and shouting to hang then-Vice President Pence and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one must somehow recognize that we are a country gone mad.
Truth and logic have left the building.
Political differences are one thing; they are needed in a true democracy. If, however, one political way of thinking is the unabashed silencing of opposing thinking or the promotion of untruths, there can be no democracy. That is a dictatorship. And if politicians of any persuasion are in power because of deceit, falsehoods and outright lying, there is no real democracy at all. For those who believe in truth and character, mankind's history clearly proves that the loss of truth and character results in the ultimate destruction of freedom.
If Americans lose track of the need for good character, truth, respect, civility, logic, fairness and justice, they stand to lose much more than an election. It seems that the most important issue in the upcoming election is the issue of trust.
In a U.S. presidential election where the incoming president swears an oath to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution of the United States, voters must cast a vote for the nominee they trust most to honestly and in good character conduct the business of the highest office in our land. Considering the recent Supreme Court ruling which ostensibly expands immunity for most presidential actions, the truth and character of the incoming president, as well as those who support him or her, become even more critical.
Harry Harelik, a native Wacoan, has worked as a self-employed CPA, foundation executive director and a longtime supporter of local nonprofit organizations. He is a member of the Tribune-Herald Board of Contributors.
