JOE ALTSCHULE

My politics are no secret, I’m proud to be a progressive liberal, but even more proud of my country, our system of government, and the hope that it’s brought to the entire world. American democracy is the greatest gift to civilization since humans left their caves and began to build true communities.

My brand of partisanship is to raise my voice when I believe opinions, policies and judgments are wrong and then to offer reasoned alternatives which I feel will create a better path for us. Over the many years that I’ve observed the political scene, I have always felt that presidents, regardless of party, were generally honest and honorable people who were trying to do the best job as they saw it. Today that seems to be wildly naive.

But I always felt that it was my obligation to provide criticism and alternatives when Republican presidents or even Democrats pursued policies with which I had genuine philosophical differences. Sure, I could often be cynical or dismissive but back in the day I never thought that any president was an habitual liar.

But then there was Richard Nixon, whose criminality and monstrous lies about it brought down his presidency. That episode shattered an illusion that our presidents could do many things, but were always going to be honest with us. Then we were told the lie about weapons of mass destruction that justified the unnecessary Iraq war and that taught us to always be on guard that we could be lied to by our presidents.

But now we’re in a whole new, and far more dangerous ballgame.

With Donald Trump we are seeing what is becoming a grave “new normal” when it comes to presidential honesty. The danger is that when this president has no qualms about constantly speaking and tweeting what he knows, or should know are blatant lies, that seriously erodes public confidence in a way that has never existed before.

Trump seems to be incapable of accepting or agreeing with anything that is even remotely negative about him or his performance. It’s that inability that forces him to simply say what he would like the truth to be rather than the actual truth.

And those are called lies.

And if we begin to excuse those blatant lies, we are lowering the presidential standard for all time, and that will diminish our democracy and our pride in ourselves.

To those who pay little or no attention to the avalanche of daily news that swirls around us, it might seem that critics are being too severe, or too judgmental of the president, but they aren’t, he deserves all the negative criticism and judgmental comments because lying when it suits him is his normal way of doing things.

The record of his constant lies proves the point. During his campaign he made many outrageous and untrue claims and promises, and those might be forgivable, chalked up to campaign rhetoric, but they relentlessly continued from the start of his presidency.

Here are some of his “greatest hits’:

3 million to 5 million people voted illegally, not true.

I will release my tax returns, not true.

We will repeal and replace Obamacare, quickly, very fast, not true.

Everyone will have the best, cheapest healthcare, not true.

We will build the wall from day one, very fast, not true.

Mexico will pay, not true.

NATO is obsolete, not true.

We will ban Muslims from our country, not true.

I will terminate NAFTA, not true.

This job will be easy for me, I have a great brain, not true.

The people protesting against me are paid to do it, not true.

The appellate courts don’t know what they’re doing, not true.

We will buy American and hire American, not true. (Trump’s clothing line, Ivanka’s clothing line, all foreign made.)

Trump cannot be easily believed. We must be on guard to call out these lies to protect our democracy. Stay alert.