What's toxic to democracy is politicians lying, and then telling us that p;ointing out their moments of hypocrisy is what's doing the real damage. Describing reality is never bad.
There's a world of difference between "This politician is lying to you." and "All politicians are lying to you." One is a statement against a single incident which can be refuted or supported by additional facts. The other is an unprovable blanket statement which begs the question of whether the government can be trusted.
The question "can government be trusted" is long answered with a resounding NO it can not
Government like fire is a useful servant, but a fearful master.
This is why we have separation of powers, checks and balances, and a federalist system in the US, because we understand government can never, and should never be trusted.
Government is control, government is fear, government is power. Power Corrupts, and the only way to prevent that corruption is to deny power, to check power, to distribute power.
Ironically I view giving democratic governments more power as abandoning the weak to the whims of the majority, which we have seen time and time again in history even recent history
Democracy after all is 2 wolves and lamb voting on what is for dinner, a constitutional republic backed by distributed governance is the lamb having rights to tell the majority to f' off
Politicians have been lying since the origin of politics. The modern press’ penchant for shouting liar every time a politician they don’t like speaks is juvenile and patronizing to the audience.
Why not both? The media is full of liars, yes - two words "Daily Mail" or "Fox News" if you are American.
Politics is also full of liars. Boris Johnson being a prime example.
I don't know what the solution is but I suspect it lies in removing egoism from the system. Something more like Switzerland's governing council rather than an individual leader that just attracts narcissistic individuals.
