'Tis The Season For Vote Buying And Lying; Smarty Pants On Fire

By Curtis Dahlgren

February 24, 2024

(Republished from November 2, 2016, and October 11, 2020)

"If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power." – Dwight Eisenhower

"The lie in the Soul is a true lie." – Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893)

This life's five windows of the soul
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole,
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro', the eye.

– William Blake (1757-1827)

To lapse in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need, and falsehood
Is worse in kings than beggars.

– Wm. Shakespeare (1564-1616)

DISCLAIMER: Can't say I've never told a lie. Didn't call it a "talking point" though. Shakespeare wrote:

"The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together: our virtues would be proud, if our faults whipped them not…. Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie; a fault, which needs it most, grows two thereby."

"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.... Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle." – Edmund Burke (1729-97)

I was just given a book, "YOU SAID WHAT? Lies and propaganda throughout history," by Bill Fawcett (Harper, 2007), and he says:

"The lie was the keynote deception for one of the darkest past of European history. 

I am not sure what so many Germans' believing it says about them or the world over half a century ago. 

What do we believe that is just as wrong today?"

Burke said: "Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist…. Tyrants seldom [lack] pretexts…. Falsehood has a perennial spring."

"The lie that flatters I abhor the most…. Stamps God's own name upon a lie just made, to turn a penny." – William Cowper (1731-1800)

"An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad." – Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639)

That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright,
But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.

– Tennyson (1809-1892)

CONCLUSION: "Whosoever loveth and maketh a lie won't be in God's Kingdom." – Revelation

Unlike George Washington, we've all told them, but I never loved one. 

In the mouth of two or three witnesses ("bear not false witness"). 

A few words more from the Scriptures:

"They have set up kings, but not by Me."

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice."

"Woe unto that nation whose king is a boy . . . Women and babes shall rule over them."

"For so is the will of God that you may put to silence the foolishness of ignorant men, not using your liberty as a cloak for malice, but as bond-servants of God."

"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty."

Burke said, "Religious persecution may shield itself under the guise of a mistaken and over-zealous piety," but to re-phrase the imperative above, written by Peter to the scattered Tribes in Asia Minor:

"Use your Freedoms to put to silence the ignorance of foolish people."

P.S. "A few honest men are better than numbers." – Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm...
And Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees.

– Wm. Cowper

PPS: Like never before, it's high time to pray!

© Curtis Dahlgren