The Top 5 Lies We Are All Hearing This Election Season
The lies that are most dangerous to the American public need to be called out. If you’re hearing these falsehoods, it’s time to shut them down. The long-term consequences of allowing liars to lead are always the same: death and destruction.
Take Richard Nixon, for example. He lied about cannabis and used it as a tool to target Mexicans. The result? Over a half-century of ‘cannabis prohibition on steroids’ that disproportionately affected minority communities. People were shot, killed, and jailed over the using of the plant. People died that didn’t have to die of cancer and alcoholism, because of the prohibition.
I have this haunting memory of being nine years old, on the Catholic school playground at recess, linking arms with the other girls, we repeated a Nixon campaign slogan, blissfully unaware of what was really at stake. Ironically, he went on to become the father of criminalizing cannabis, a fact I would only understand much later. And that’s the problem—believing in lies and bad leadership always leaves a permanent scar.
I’m not going to spell out which political party is guilty here. I trust you can figure that out. ‘Desperate politicians’ aptly describes those who build their campaigns on lies. It works, but it’s a replacement for real skills and real effort – and it never ends well for the liar. Nixon’s legacy of prohibition should be enough to motivate you to vote this election season.
I have divided the lies into two categories: (1) legacy lies and (2) new and embellished lies.
Legacy Lies
I. Tax Cuts for the Rich Benefit Everyone
The Claim is that Republicans often argue that tax cuts for the wealthy will ‘trickle down’ to everyone, stimulating investment, job creation, and economic growth.
The Reality is decades of economic research have debunked this. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, for example, disproportionately benefited corporations and the wealthy. Most gains went to the top 1%, while the middle class saw minimal improvement in wages or job opportunities. The result? The erosion of the middle class and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few.
II. Climate Change Denial
The Claim is that climate change as a threat to humanity is not real. Prominent Republicans, including former President Trump, have dismissed climate change, calling it a hoax or exaggeration.
The Reality is that scientists overwhelming agree that human activity is the primary driver of global warming. Ignoring climate change has delayed crucial policy actions needed to protect our planet. As a result, the U.S. still lags behind other nations in reducing carbon emissions and waste production, despite being one of the largest contributors.
III. Immigration
The claim is that the GOP is better at handling immigration than the Democrats.
The reality is that the idea that one political party is better at managing immigration than the other is another lie. Immigration is not a partisan issue. Historically, both Republican and Democratic administrations have shaped immigration policy, driven by global events and economic needs—not party lines.
1. Major Immigration Reforms Cross Party Lines:
Immigration reforms have been enacted by both Republicans and Democrats:
- 1924: The Immigration Act (Republican President Calvin Coolidge) imposed national quotas.
- 1965: The Immigration and Nationality Act (Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson) abolished those quotas and reshaped modern immigration.
- 1986: The Immigration Reform and Control Act (Republican President Ronald Reagan) provided amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants.
Both parties have enacted significant reforms, showing that immigration has never been a strictly partisan issue.
2. Immigration as an Economic Necessity:
Labor shortages often drive bipartisan calls for flexible immigration policies. Both parties have recognized the economic importance of immigrant labor, from agriculture to tech sectors. Even the Bipartisan Immigration Reform Bill of 2013 passed the Senate with support from both parties before stalling in the House.
3. Global Events Shape Immigration Policies:
Immigration patterns often result from global conflicts and economic crises. After World War I and World War II, waves of immigrants arrived, regardless of the party in power. Current refugee resettlements from Syria and Central America continue under both Republican and Democratic administrations, driven by crises—not political rhetoric.
Note that 40% of the planet’s spend on weapons is spent in the American war shop. Perhaps if we found something more useful than weapons to build, we could reduce the amount of displaced people by reducing the war activity on this planet.
4. Immigration Enforcement:
Both parties have implemented strict enforcement policies. Obama oversaw record deportations, earning the nickname “Deporter-in-Chief,” while Bush expanded border security post-9/11. Immigration enforcement is a shared concern, not a partisan one.
The result of believing immigration is a one-party issue is catastrophes at the border, family separations, and an ineffective system. Immigration is complex and transcends party lines. It is a complex issue now, it was a complex issue back in 1924, and to believe that one party has the answers, is folly.
New and Embellished Lies
IV. Voter Fraud
The purpose of making people believe the election system is broken, when it is not, is to weaken the public’s confidence in the election system. It’s what Putin wants, too, to weaken our democracy.
The poor outnumber the wealthy and we all get one vote, so it is in the interest of those who want to maintain the status quo, to protect their wealth, to discourage as many of us from voting as possible.
The Claim is that widespread voter fraud is a recurring claim from Republicans, particularly after losing elections. Trump amplified this during the 2020 election.
The Reality is that multiple audits, recounts, and court cases have shown no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud. Courts consistently ruled against fraud claims in dozens of lawsuits post-2020. Believing this lie erodes trust in democracy.
V. Abortion Up Until Birth
This Claim has several versions, but they all stack up to the same thing – believing that women want the right to abort their babies as they are coming out of the womb. This is an angry lie against all women, it is ridiculous, but it is their way of saying that they don’t trust women. They don’t believe in body rights.
The Reality is that no U.S. state allows such practices, and infanticide is illegal nationwide. Claims like these from figures such as Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are not only false but dangerously misleading. Abortions after 21 weeks are extremely rare and typically involve life-threatening medical conditions. The use of these lies is purely political, designed to force uncomfortable votes and mislead the public about the realities of abortion laws.
Just hearing this particular lie should make everyone angry, because it expresses such contempt for women in such a horrendous manner. I often say, “If men could have babies, I would believe that lie. But I only know women who have lost babies in the 9th month and who still visit their graves every year and take flowers and mourn their loss. I know of no women who would carry a baby for an extra month (by the way, the longest month of the nine months) just to kill it when it arrives! It’s such foolishness, but it is dangerous. It is a fertilization of a field where they can return to the times when women are property or prey. It is a lie that takes away health services for women and puts their lives at risk.
The Real Human Suffering
Beyond the rhetoric and political games, these lies leave a trail of real human suffering. This isn’t about abstract policies or partisan bickering—it’s about people.
Women are on the front lines of this harm. In states with restrictive abortion laws, women with difficult pregnancies face life-threatening delays in receiving care because doctors fear criminal charges. Women carrying non-viable fetuses, or those suffering miscarriages, may be investigated for “suspicious” pregnancy losses. The idea that women are free to choose how and when to terminate a pregnancy—especially “right up to birth”—is not only false, it masks the real pain of women who are denied urgent care and compassion.
Immigrants, including Mexicans, Haitians, and refugees from war-torn regions, also suffer under the weight of these lies. The constant dehumanization of immigrants stokes fear and leads to policies that tear families apart. At the border, children are separated from their parents, leaving scars that may never heal. Refugees fleeing violence are turned away or held in inhumane conditions, further fueling the suffering of those who sought safety and hope in the United States. These are not faceless hordes—they are families, children, human beings whose only crime is seeking a better life.
LGBTQ+ communities are similarly targeted by lies that strip them of their dignity and rights. In many states, laws are being proposed that criminalize their very existence under the guise of “protecting children.” Transgender individuals, in particular, face an onslaught of violence, exclusion from healthcare, and discriminatory laws that deny them the basic right to live authentically.
Every time we allow these lies to flourish, the human costs tally. Women die from preventable complications, immigrants face detention and family separation, and LGBTQ+ people and minorities are put in harm’s way.
This is the real crisis: human suffering caused by lies. It’s not just politics—it’s life and death for people at the margins.
When we allow dangerous lies to dominate our political landscape, we have to live with the consequences. When we let those lies echo through the halls of our nation, when we repeat them and make them real, people get hurt. In 1970, Nixon made cannabis a schedule I drug and therefore, prohibited. Fifty-four years later, we still have large parts of America where it is yet illegal. And his campaign started with lies about the plant and the people of the plant. Think about that when you are voting this election season.
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