To save American democracy, take all the fun out of lying

To save American democracy, take all the fun out of lying

The power of treating Republicans like adults.

First, no they didn't. Second, why are you choosing to believe a lie?

First, no they didn't. Second, why are you choosing to believe a lie?

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Scott Kirby is the CEO of United Airlines. The global corporation he runs employs about 67,000 people in the US. On Thursday, he appeared on CNN’s morning show, “New Day.” He said something that surprised host Brianna Keilar, but won’t surprise readers of the Editorial Board. 

Kirby said the number of employees who resigned from their jobs rather than get vaccinated, per company order, was in “the single digits.” “We’re going to have more by the time it finishes, but it’s going to be a very low number of people who ultimately decided to leave.”

CNN’s Keilar responded with surprise. (“Single digits!”) I’m guessing that’s because she has seen the same polls everyone else has seen that show eye-popping percentages of the unvaccinated (67 percent in one poll) swearing up and down they’ll never do what they’d told and be forced into getting vaccinated against the covid. They’d quit their jobs first! Well, if United is any indication, they’re doing what they’re told.

Editorial Board readers aren’t surprised. That’s the dynamic I outlined in Monday’s edition. I said we’d see at the same time polls that show resistance to vaccines and company reports that show compliance. There’s only one explanation. These people are lying. Moreover, they like to think of themselves as macho heroes who will never fold under pressure. When the pressure comes, though, they fold in a hurry.

Business is different from politics, obviously, but I want to suggest a similar dynamic is playing out in recent polls that show eye-popping percentages of Republican voters saying they believe Joe Biden isn’t the real president. According to CNN, 76 percent of Republicans say they have no or little confidence in elections. According to a new PRRI survey, 76 percent of Fox-watching Republicans believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen. A typical reaction to this is shock and dismay. How can we save democracy when so many people don’t have any trust in the democratic process? And no one has an answer.

It’s past time to rethink this. Instead of asking ourselves what we’re going to do to save democracy on account of so many people distrusting elections, let’s save democracy by doing this one weird trick: stop believing people who tell themselves wild, howling lies. 

Remember the people who are that saying Donald Trump is the real president are the same people who said they’d quit their jobs before getting vaccinated. (They are also the people who are drinking sheep drench.) Their employers didn’t buy it and the lie was revealed. We shouldn’t buy it either. These people know vaccines are safe. They know how to go to a doctor. They know how to take medicine. Similarly, they know Joe Biden is the real president. Their employers are treating them as moral agents. We should treat them that way, too.