Reward for Lying: Getting Elected

Dear Editor,
    If reader Bruce D. Garnett believes that politicians lie [“Postmarks,” May 4], did he really expect an honest answer from them? (Bill Latham's nonanswer was the best he could hope for [“Postmarks,” May 11].) Politicians lie because We the People reward them for lying. We vote for the people who tell us what we want to hear. But, given that serious thinkers claim that everyone creates their own reality, how can anyone claim anybody is lying? The charge requires a common reality. We the People can't even agree on what scientific facts are. (Global warming, for instance.) Politicians use issues to get our votes, then dis us for being stupid enough to vote for them. They're right.