WaPo | Calling someone dishonest is one of the most serious political
insults in the United States. The country has been obsessed with its
politicians' honesty at least since President George Washington's first
biographer popularized the tale of him hacking at the trunk of a cherry
tree. "I cannot tell a lie," a young Washington supposedly said when
confronted about the damage.
Now, with less than a week until the
Iowa caucuses and with Bernie Sanders advancing in the polls, Hillary
Clinton still hasn't been able to clear away the accusations of
dishonesty that have clouded her campaign. At the Democratic
presidential town hall on Monday, a Sanders supporter noted that it's
a reason Clinton has struggled to attract young voters: "I've heard from
quite a few people my age that they think you're dishonest," he said.
Here's the thing, though: There was no cherry tree. Washington's biographer apparently fabricated it. "The
great founding myth of American political integrity, chopping down the
cherry tree, is, in fact, itself a lie," said Martin Jay, a historian at
the University of California at Berkeley and author of a book called "The Virtues of Mendacity."
That's
the real lesson of the tale of Washington's cherry tree: Americans
might just be overly attached to the ideal of a scrupulously honest
president. Especially at a time of intense polarization in Congress,
recent experience suggests that the direction of public policy will
have little to do with whether the Oval Office's next occupant really
believes what he or she says on the campaign trail.
"It's necessary, in politics, to have a certain willingness to bend the truth," Jay said. "You're not electing the pope."
