While it’s fun for many citizens to mock all politicians as liars, the reality is that people in public life often see their careers destroyed for telling the truth.
Case in point: Governor Scott Walker’s new social media aide Liz Mair. Mair has made numerous tweets and social media posts in the past on the following topics:
Iowa citizens are too dependent on tax subsidies for ethanol. This is a topic that now has broad ideological and partisan agreement: Other than corn farmers in Iowa, there is now near universal agreement that massive tax breaks for ethanol is a horrible policy from both an economic and environmental standpoint.
In other words, Mair was correct.
Her next big point is that certain Iowa politicians like Rep Steve King are embarrassing the party with his talk of cantaloupe-calved immigrants running drugs. Again, there is broad agreement across the political and party spectrum that King is hurting and embarrassing his party.
Finally, Mair has pointed out that Iowa has too much influence in the party nomination process and her party would be better off if Iowa didn’t always start the campaign. Again, across the political spectrum and across both parties, Mair’s assessment is held in wide agreement, though for different reasons.
The result of Mair putting forth well-reasoned and factually correct political assessments? She was fired within 24 hours of starting her job.
Politics is indeed a treacherous business because you can destroy your career not only by lying and stealing, but also for telling the truth.