# Politicians Lie. And You Want Them To. Politicians lie. And you want them to. I believe a politician who tells the truth all the time is either not electable, or one I simply wouldn't vote for and I think you wouldn't either. Think about it for a minute: **the average voter is uneducated, unable to think objectively on any topic (emotions and gut feeling take precedence, [[Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman]]), his intelligence is not enviable and he’s probably unable to write down two cohesive sentences on any topic in modern politics**. If you’re in the U.S., **he’s probably a bit racist, very religious and thus homophobic and intolerant**. All qualities I wouldn't particularly appreciate in a public official. Those are not my impressions, it’s pure statistics. Churchill put it best: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter." A politician who gets elected by the average Joe and tells the truth all the time is so populist I doubt I’d agree with his politics. **We need leaders who think objectively and make hard choices based not only on what will keep them in office** (as those are the decisions the racist Joe would agree with), but also on what will further the objectives of the country as a whole in the long run. **Thus the need for ‘lawyer-talk’ and sometimes blatant lies. Joe is just not smart enough to accept the truth. He swallows the medicine a lot easier if you sugar-coat it and tell him ‘this won’t hurt a bit,’ even though you know it will.** You deal with getting caught if and when it happens.