'We're lying, and you can't catch us'

By L. Dietle

Truthfulness and forthrightness matter. When a presidential candidate and his running mate camouflage their actual positions to garner votes from the uninformed, it is appalling. When the mainstream media covers up the deception to promote their preferred candidates, it is outrageous. We have a right to know what the candidates' true positions are, from their own mouths, and any discrepancies should be headline news.

To illustrate what is going on, I am going to focus on the Second Amendment issue. Whether you are for or against the Second Amendment, you should expect to be told where the candidates really stand. Obama and Biden say that they support Second Amendment rights, but their actions over the years prove otherwise. The media is not only letting them get away with this deception, they are aiding and abetting it. Americans deserve honest political discourse, not subterfuge.

If a politician's record shows that he has long opposed something, he cannot truthfully say he supports it unless he has expressly changed his mind. When a politician does experience such an epiphany, and reverses direction on a polarizing issue, the media ordinarily demands an explanation. That has not happened, so the uncritical dissemination of Obama's and Biden's pro-Second Amendment statements can only interpreted as a dishonest smokescreen.

Why is the supposedly all-curious media so disinterested in the reason why Obama and Biden now say they are pro-gun, when they have a long anti-gun record? If the candidates have inexplicably switched from anti-gun to pro-gun, why aren't the anti-gunners hopping mad, along with their normally outspoken supporters in the media? I'll tell you why. It is because they know that all the pro-gun talk is a shameless ruse. There can be no other explanation.

The media is not merely reporting the pro-gun statements of Obama and Biden, they are using the statements to "prove" that the candidates are not anti-gun. They are whitewashing the actual legislative record, and are even stooping so low as to report the pro-Obama statements of a sham pro-gun organization that is actually run by anti-gunners. This is the very same media that ordinarily gives almost any firearms coverage a huge anti-gun spin. Why all the "pro-gun" hoopla now? And why, pray tell, does the anti-gun Brady Campaign promote Obama, while the NRA opposes him? You do the math.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Since the time of this editorial submission, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence "with its network of Million Mom March Chapters" has in fact announced its endorsement of Barack Obama and Joe Biden.]

A candidate should tell the voters what they actually believe, in a straightforward manner. If these candidates and the media are willing to employ deception on this particular issue, I do not trust them on any issue. They may be willing to say anything to influence an election, but they won't get my vote.