The Art of Lying: From Watergate to “Whatever!!”
Once upon a time in American politics, lying was career suicide.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace when his Watergate cover-up was exposed.
Back then the public had just discovered they'd been “lied to” about Vietnam (hello, Pentagon Papers), and even the hint of dishonesty could topple a presidency. Watergate was a cautionary tale, not a resume bullet point.
Nixon’s departure under a cloud of lies was unthinkable to ignore.
Now?
Well, let’s just say if Nixon today got caught tape-recording incriminating conversations, some might tweet, “Looks like Monday’s press conference just got canceled!”
Fast-forward to the 2020s, and lying has become as American as apple pie. Politicians today can tell glaring whoppers – about elections, pandemics, taxes or even what they had for lunch – and still swagger on.
George Santos even lied his way into Congress!
Surveys show 72% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats already believe the opposing party is more dishonest than other Americans. That means most people expect politicians from the other side to fib!
Partisanship really works: Democrats chalk it up to “part of the job,” and Republicans call it “winning at all costs.”
Even fact-checkers play referee.
PolitiFact’s founder reports that from 2016–2021 Republican statements were false 55% of the time, versus 31% for Democrats – so yes, both sides fib plenty, even if one side fibs more.
The upshot: lying is now bipartisan business-as-usual, a dirty trick as much a part of campaign strategy as lawn signs and endless Zoom calls.
Corporate Deceptions
The rot isn’t confined to the Capitol.
In the boardrooms and insurance offices, lying has become an institutionalized practice.
Enron, the poster child of corporate deceit, famously used off-balance-sheet accounting to hide $74 billion in losses. When its executives inflated profits and defrauded investors, 25,000 employees suddenly had no jobs and shareholders got nothing.
The scandal prompted Sarbanes-Oxley reforms – and yet corporate trickery lives on in subtler ways.
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Enron (2001): A household name for fraud – executives sold stock to friends while publicly touting endless profits. When the truth came out, the company collapsed, and shareholders lost $74 billion.
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Hurricane Insurers (2024–’25): In storm-ravaged Florida, insurers denied a shocking 50–75% of homeowners’ claims. One audit found 14 Florida insurers outright refused to pay over half of all 2024 claims. Families who paid high premiums found their flood and wind damage ruled “not covered” – a truly breathtaking corporate lie of omission.
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Health Insurers (2023): Even with Affordable Care Act oversight, one analysis found 1-in-5 in-network claims were flat-out denied. Big insurers like BCBS and UnitedHealth routinely reject thousands of claims, then frustrate patients who try to appeal. In other words, your insurance company plays poker with your health – and they’ve already stacked the deck.
Even worse, sometimes these lies cross into outright fraud.
For example, Florida regulators forced Universal Property & Casualty to return $30 million after it was caught filing phony storm claims to the state hurricane fund. When citizens ask how any of this is legal, corporate executives just smile and say “it’s a business practice.”
(Somehow, a personal email asking about Obama’s birth certificate can get you a perjury trial, but inventing phantom hurricane damage nets only a fine.)
In 2025’s America, the biggest lie you tell might be on your next insurance claim.
Even the Department of Justice’s own front door is the scene of countless sworn statements – some of which turn out to be fudged.
Federal agencies now often treat truth more like a suggestion. Consider the FBI’s secret warrant applications under FISA.
A Justice Department inspector general found hundreds of technical “errors” and missing documents in hundreds of surveillance filings. By one count, of over 7,000 FISA applications from 2015–2020, at least 183 were missing required supporting files, and “hundreds of errors” popped up in others.
Imagine your insurance agent trying that excuse – “oops, looks like we lost that contract you signed, our bad!”
In spyland, they just call it “new evidence found.” The FBI’s official response was to tighten procedures – a nice way to admit “yeah, we were kinda winging it.”
And it’s not just FISA: over decades, federal workers have been caught fibbing on affidavits, manipulating data, or hiding evidence.
From IRS whistleblowers to drug enforcement raids based on faulty or fraudulent forensic science, truth in law enforcement has become optional. (One Senate hearing even had members warning, “We have a history of these agencies getting it very, very wrong”. Yes, getting it wrong is the new normal.)
Americans used to expect government lies would be punished; now we’ve heard allegations ranging from “they lied on a warrant” to “they dumped toxic waste and spun the story.” But so far, the only consequence seems to be more internal memos and press conferences.
In short, if you imagine a noble marshal yelling “Stop! In the President’s name, tell the truth!” after Watergate, nowadays he’d probably be laughed off the lawn or dismissed as “partisan.”
The Great Party of Truthiness
Here’s the kicker: this epidemic of dishonesty is proudly bipartisan. Polls show the public essentially trusts nobody’s truth-telling. In fact, majorities in both parties now call the other side dishonest. That’s a bipartisan tragedy, fueled by both red and blue spin machines.
Remember, Democrats lied too – think Newt Gingrich’s outrageous fact fantasies or George W. Bush’s claims about WMDs – and the GOP isn’t innocent either. Both parties have weaponized lies to rally their base and demonize opponents. As one commentator wryly notes, lying has become part of that “epic battle” so many politicians see themselves in.
The Independent reports PolitiFact found Republicans “took more liberties” with truth, but Democrats weren’t saints either.
When high-profile figures feed their voters fiction (remember the “two-thirds of people want a border wall” claptrap, or the “immigrants eat Burger King all day” line?), each side shrugs and fires back with a counter-tall tale.
Trust no politician is the unwritten rule. Every public institution – Congress, courts, even the White House press office – sometimes sounds like the kid who says, “I did my homework!” while secretly texting.
And with cable news and social media, any lie can ricochet around the country before a fact-check can shout “Gotcha!” No wonder voters just assume someone is lying – it’s now part of the scenery.
“Fake News!” All the cool kids are shouting it. By now lying is the default setting: companies lie to win contracts, lawyers twist evidence to win cases, even thank-you notes might exaggerate a gift.
Comedy shows had a field day: one viral meme summed it up with a figure hollering “FAKE NEWS” through a megaphone like it’s the latest dance craze.
There’s truthiness, “alternative facts,” post-truth… we’ve run out of words, so we just shout “Fake News” as punchline. In that sense, the joke’s on us: we’ve been trained to expect exaggeration and excuses.
Ironically, this collective groan of “here we go again” signals a deeper loss of faith. Small lies – my colleague fibbing about why he’s late, the kid blaming the dog – used to be no big deal, but in a world where our leaders lie about everything, even a tiny untruth feels like yet another brick in a crumbling wall.
Each fib from a CEO or congressperson chips away at trust. If the people who make rules and run institutions won’t play straight, why should anyone else?
Soon lying perverts the entire system: civic discourse becomes straw men and curses instead of debate. Anger and cynicism flourish, while accountability fades behind a fog of spin.
No More Lying Down: A Call to an Honest Union
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a call to tears (or trust) about some mythical honest Golden Age. Our leaders have always cheated somehow. But today’s new normal is loud and accepted: bald-faced lying gets headlines, scandal parades on, then the next Big Lie marches in and the cycle repeats.
We giggle at this absurdity on late-night TV, but in the end it’s deadly serious. A society that shrugs at repeated dishonesty is like a patient refusing antibiotics while watching the infection spread.
The satirical punchline is obvious: everyone’s doing it, so why not me?
But unlike a yard sale, not everything can be “sold as-is, no returns.” When we all lower our standards – the public twisting the truth to our neighbors, businesses lying to their customers, parties lying about each other – we hollow out the civic bonds that hold democracy together.
Lies are contagious. If we accept liars as normal, each small fib weakens the whole structure of trust.
So, what’s the solution in this funhouse mirror era?
Here’s a serious thought wrapped in satire: each of us must start expecting honesty even from the liars we like. Yes, even your favorite partisan or your company’s CEO should be called on it.
Vote for truth, not team. Support politicians and policies that actually match their promises. Read beyond the soundbite. Demand transparency at work – from insurance claim decisions to campaign spending.
When Grandpa says he “heard it online,” maybe double-check the facts before nodding along. Even as satire, it’s simple: you get more of what you tolerate.
If we laugh at every phony line, cynicism wins. If instead we push back – publicly, individually, relentlessly – the next liar knows they’ll be called out, not asked to resign for a symbolic “mistake.”
Because here’s the heartfelt bit under the snark: accepting lies, big or small, does weaken us. It makes society brittle, corruption more brazen, and truth rarer. It turns our politics into kabuki theater and our markets into con games.
We deserve better. In the words of that tired old cartoon figure yelling “FAKE NEWS,” maybe the joke’s on us only if we keep buying it.
So let’s laugh at the absurdity, but also recognize that the punchline of democracy can’t be a big facemask emoji.
In the end, the only cure is honesty – like a vaccine, it has to come from within each of us. Reject the lies fed to you by anyone you support. Celebrate the truth where you find it. Even a "White Lie" seems to "Tan" over time...
Teach children that “everyone else does it” is not an excuse. Be the surprising voice of candor at the dinner table or the water cooler.
It won’t be easy. But maybe if we demand more truth – just as loudly as we demand cheap gas or updated iPhones – the pandemic of lies will start to retreat.
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