During the Republican debate on Wednesday, Ben Carson was asked about his involvement with Mannatech, which is a nutritional supplement company that has had to pay $7 million to settle a lawsuit. The company was sued for deceptive practices and is known for making extraordinary claims about the efficacy of its products. Dr. Carson claimed to have no involvement with the company…
In fact, he has worked with them and promoted their products extensivly. Writing for the New York Times, Paul Krugman noted that Carson’s lie was hardly unique. In fact it’s part of a pattern – all of the candidates lie, and they all believe they can get away with it. Krugman believes they may be right on that last point, given Republican voters’ contempt and hostility towards mainstream media. Krugman also describes the Republican candidates as grifters or con artists, and he divides them into three categories:
He puts Carson in the first and crudest category: people who take advantage of their marks’ desire for miracle cures or the like. The second group contains candidates who feign knowledge about policy analysis. It includes people like Ron Paul who has built a good chunk of his career around warning people about hyperinflation. He sells books and videos offering to teach people how they can protect themselves from impending economic collapse. Similarly, Ted Cruz warns that hyperinflation is imminent, and he has made returning to the gold standard part of his platform. He is backed by Glenn Beck, who has shilled for a company called Goldline on his show. Goldline sells gold coins and bars at high prices and would doubtless benefit from a return to the gold standard. The last group of grifters consists of people and organizations who are allegedly involved in politics but spend more time making money for their leaders than aiding their purported causes. This group includes PACs that spend more money on consultants’ fees and administrative costs than on pursuing their alleged goals. The Tea Party Leadership Fund, for example, spends only 14% of its budget on funding various political candidates. Given its name, one would think supporting Tea Party candidates would be the group’s top priority.
Outsider candidates like Trump and Carson are not the only ones who engage in such shenanigans. The conventional candidates do as well. Marco Rubio, for example, insists that he will cut taxes by $6 trillion dollars – and that the tax cuts will somehow pay for themselves. Once upon a time, such a claim would have gotten him laughed out of the race. Even as recently as 2000, George W. Bush at least had to pretend to use realistic budgeting whilst campaigning. The blatant deceit isn’t hurting the candidates. Between them, Carson, Cruz, and Trump enjoy the support of 60% of Republican voters… It doesn’t even matter if the candidates, like Rubio, adopt positions that seem to contradict long-held Republican values like fiscal responsibility.
The aforementioned hostility of Republican voters towards the mainstream media exacerbates matters, for it means theses voters won’t believe any reports of malfeasance or deceit on the candidates’ part. They will simply assume that some cruel liberal is just trying to make their candidates look bad. That attitude, of course, benefits the candidates for it means that it doesn’t matter if they get caught in a lie. Their supporters will vote for them anyway.