Buckley s point was that everyone knows wrestling is faked and that spreading pork in key states is bribery, yet both are accepted without much comment. Taking this cynicism a step further, many citizens forsake the political process because t hey believe all politicians to be liars and swindlers. Bellicose wrestlers swaggering in circus garb are hard to take seriously, just as it s hard to trust politicians promising action someday for your vote today. Some optimists hold onto the notion that diligent observation of wrestling will eventually payoff with a real fight rather than fakery. Others keep watching politics, certain that someday they ll see truth consistently spoken and promises routinely kept.
Hope springs eternal.
Like a wrestler, President Clinton exhibits formidable acting skills. Perhaps so, but Clinton s in a class by himself. They ask why we criticize habitual lying. I ask why we tolerate it. Many politicians render words that are the rhetorical equivalent of boiled okra.