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Letters  

Politician 'consumate liar'

The latest Saturday Night Live episode had two comedic skits that featured a cast-member playing Republican Congressman George Santos.

While channel-surfing a few nights earlier, I found two different comedians playing the same role on Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Both comedians pretended to be in the House of Representatives in Washington answering ridiculous questions from the talk-show hosts.

With the world of politics in such a chaotic state everywhere, a little silly humour is welcome, especially from Washington, so often the epicentre of global turmoil.

Many will have heard of Santos, when it was revealed he won his seat in last November’s congressional elections despite having told the voters a multitude of lies. His phoney claims about where he received his education, where he had been employed, his heritage and ethnicity, his wealth and property ownership, his mother’s “death” on 9/11 and other outrageous fallacies were all laid out in a New York Times article just before Christmas.

Since then, Santos has taken his seat in Congress and was appointed to the Small Business Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Believe it or not, there are many further indiscretions and revelations about his bizarre lifestyle prior to getting elected causing the recent late night media attention. Along with all the jokes and jibes from aforementioned comedians, Real Time With Bill Maher looked deeper into the sad, sorry, seamy, sleazy, sordid, sickening, salacious Santos saga.

Maher has been my favourite comedian and satirist for about 30 years, when his former show Politically Incorrect became a late-night staple for almost a decade. He makes no secret of supporting Democrats, even donating US$1-million to Barack Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012. But he doesn’t simply pile scorn on Republicans as other talk-show hosts do. He also takes Democrats to task, while always disparaging their “wokeness.”

On his most recent show, he cleverly summarized how easily such a completely phoney candidate as Santos could be elected. Quite simply, said Maher, he got votes from Republicans by falsely claiming to be a successful luxury yacht broker who attended the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6. 2021.

While to Democrats, who love identity politics and victimhood, he gained trust by untruthful claims to be Jewish, half-Black and a brain tumour surviver. So he told all the voters exactly what they wanted to hear, as politicians always do, and satisfied each political party that he was their best choice.

It happens in every democracy, not just in America. Parties and supporters are so convinced in their own tribal bubble of beliefs, and become oblivious of what happens in the real world.

Mr. Santos refined what’s been going on in politics for ever, and won his seat by being the consummate liar.

Bernie Smith, Parksville



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