All I Wanted Was The Truth.
I lived with a liar for a year. Deep-down, Gregg was a good guy. He wanted to do what was right, but he was so insecure that he believed the truth was simply insufficient.
So Gregg lied. He lied about money, his relationships, his family and his job. For several weeks, he went out to “work.” He came home filthy dirty after eight hours – but he didn’t actually have a job! Gregg lied because he was afraid of what I would think about him if he told me the truth.
But all I wanted was the truth. I can deal with human error. But I can’t live with someone who is so dishonest that he spews lies at me when he’s only trying to protect himself.
I begged him for the truth, but I always had to figure out the truth on my own. And I’m doing the same thing now.
In the past month, I’ve watched two debates and two interviews with Donald Trump. And what I repeatedly heard were the same kinds of generalizations that I heard from Gregg more than 30 years ago.
What bothered me most is that I made the connection – that Trump is lying, just like Gregg, so that people will think more highly of him. I don’t want to feel sorry for Trump – and it’s hard not to, given that he’s simply afraid of the truth. He’s like a toddler covered in chocolate.
But what is completely beyond my comprehension is that other people don’t hear “lies” and “fabrications.” They hear “strength.”
But how does anyone surmise “strength” out of such weakness? Do you have to literally live with a pathological liar to be able to identify one?
Why can’t other people see that Trump fabricates “greatness” by using specific phrases meant to pacify? Why don’t they notice these kinds of generalized, vague statements?
- “People are saying…”
- “The fact is…”
- “Nobody really knows…”
- “It’s very important…”
- “We’ve done great things…”
- “I’m looking into that…”
- “We’ll see what happens…”
- “It’s just not true…”
- “Everybody knows it…”
- “It’s so ridiculous…”
- “And I’ll tell you what else…”
To me, it’s like asking a murderer: “Did you kill this person?”
And the murderer says, “People say I killed this person. And it’s very important, but nobody knows everything. You don’t know everything, and I can prove it. People are saying these things but it’s so ridiculous. They say things are happening all the time, and we’ve done great things. The fact is, this is what matters. And everybody knows it.”
I may have witnessed the murder with my own eyes, but after a liar starts pontificating, I am supposed to believe that what I saw was the product of my imagination.
After listening to Trump – or Gregg – I started to doubt my own sanity. I started to believe that I was the one with the problem – and only he could save me.
Because that’s what he wanted me to think.
After I realized that every word out of Gregg’s mouth was either entirely imagined or only partially true, I left him. I needed to be able to trust my partner.
I just don’t understand why so many millions of Americans – especially in the middle of a worldwide pandemic – can still trust a man who has just spent four years trying to make himself look better.
I don’t think it’s a matter of politics. I think it’s a matter of humanity.