Sever social media: one path to gain political truth

My amazing discovery came five years ago as I looked for a source beyond facebook to discover real facts about what our presidential candidates really believed. They were opposites, and as a judicious voter, I needed accuracy beyond what my acquaintances were sharing. The chaff flying at me from various directions contained bias and hatred … I needed truth.

The problem is where do you look for truth. Obviously it is not in random posts to social media from friends, acquaintances, enemies, or unknowns. Increasingly the media can not be trusted either: I have tried balancing Fox, CNN, BBC and other outlets. All have biases, and while it is necessary to balance conservative and liberal, these media sources are oversimplified and only share what will the editor approves. Many preferences, accomplishments, biases and talking points go consistently unreported.

I attempted to visit the websites of the candidates themselves, but on first appearance discovered these are sales sites. The first page I find (whether Democrat, Republican, Green, Conservative, Libertarian, or other party) is a plea for money. How do I know I even want to give before I discover who these politicians really are?? [I have written several letters to candidates about issues; and always receive a letter back asking me to send money! 1) they are not my children; 2) I was writing about something I did not like, why would I send money; 3) there is something here that reveals their true intent: not to serve people, but to build money machines. 4) four times out of five, the letter never responds to the issue I asked about.] The sites are fundraisers and sales pages that do not really reveal the candidate’s true self.

How can I learn about the candidate

After all my on-line attempts to separate truth from fiction failed, I went to the Library. Somewhere along the way in my research I came across some books the candidates had written. I check out two books from Donald Trump and one from Hillary Clinton (in 2016) in order to hear where the candidates believed and where they stood in their own words.

The first of the books I read was Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America  published in 2015, and gave an agenda developed as a sales pitch to current constituency in order to please the populace and gain votes. While the book was a reveal on current stances (and far more in depth than any news report or social media post), the presentation had been manipulated so I could not see the true candidate. The book was at least a positive presentation of ideas with details.

The second book I read was a much older book, The Art of the Deal, by Donald Trump. The book, written in 1987, was not about politics, but about business. Actually, it was not really about either, it was about motivations: that is what I was looking for. What were the inner-workings of the candidate. I discovered some nitty-gritty truths about the man running for the office of President of the United States!

In the book by Donald Trump, I read about his motivations and his business dealings. The most enlightening lesson I saw was included in the lessons he learned from his Cincinnati rental properties. I will let you read the book to discover the ideas he developed as he managed his first apartments. The lesson never goes away. And I learned that the best books were written at a time before the candidate ever thought about running for office.

It Takes a Village, was the third book I read to help determine my vote. This book, written in 1996 by Hillary Clinton, showed me a candidate who found her motivation to enter politics as a teenager church volunteer. The author shared a bit of her autobiography and things that motivated her to care for people. The book was much different than Donald Trump’s books, and within it’s pages I found out how misleading social media was becoming.

Avoid social media steamrollers

Upon entering the 2020 election season I decided to check out some more books. This time I felt I was a step ahead, because only one major candidate was running on the Republican ticket. I took a look at the Democratic field of candidates … over 20 candidates had announced their intentions to run for office. About half had written books, which meant a lot of reading! (I discovered some motivations by only looking at the titles of books written by candidates who eventually dropped out of the race, it was interesting, but beyond the topic of this blog).

I went to our local public library to seek what books I could find. Most were not in our local library’s collection. There were no books by candidate Joe Biden, but there was one by a friend of his, and another by his eventual running mate, Kamala Harris. I checked both of these books out.

The first book I read was The book of Joe by Jeff Wilser. This was a fun book to read and included many amusing facts which about the candidate that were never included in social media, news media, or in Joe Biden’s books (that I eventually read). In this book I learned a lot about the man who is both our nations youngest elected senator and also our nations oldest elected President. Many fun anecdotes were included in the book, like when the future President of the United States rolled under a moving dump truck on a dare.

Through this book Joe Biden became more of a person than a candidate. I also eventually checked out the book Promise Me, Dad, which is about the Vice President’s experience of loosing a son to cancer. Books like this show a person’s true faith and strength.

I listened to the audio-book, The Truths We Hold: An American Journey during a long car ride. The book dispelled a lot of social media rumors and revealed the person inside the candidate. Although this book was written as Kamala Harris was running for office, it was informative about her childhood, her time as Attorney General in California (especially her work with Beau Biden) and the reason she takes stands on various issues. Although this candidate failed in her run for President, my reading became more valuable as she was selected as vice-president.

I would have picked up a book by Mike Pence, because I like to balance my knowledge, but he has not written any books that I could find.

What I have discovered about books

I must have an inquisitive mind, because I want to know things that seem not to matter to most people. There are things important to me both politically and socially that I want to know about my elected officials. Many of these do not appear in social media (which in the end is very limited, mostly negative, very biased and often false), in simple news sources (although magazine articles and longer news sources do pick up on some of my interests), or the candidate’s websites.

The things I want to know are usually contained in books. But not just any books, because there are a lot of biased books written. The best quotes I have found, the ones that I seem to trust most are contained in books that go deep enough to get quotes, which are statements from the people themselves. I look for their answers to “what do you believe?” and eventually find them.

So, what is it that I look for, and what is it that I believe? By occupation, I worked as a Minister of Education for many years. Religion and History are two of my interests, and I get interested in politics when these two topics intersect (which they often do!) I am mostly interested in our world becoming a better place.

I have written a book about politics … well, I did not know it was about politics as I was writing … but in reading my own book, I have discovered it tells the things our leaders really ought to know. This book tells how our world could be a better place.

Spring: Connecting With God is a book I originally wrote about Passover. This book is not about how to celebrate the festival (as can be found in my book A Christian Passover in the Jewish Tradition), but it is about cultural lessons that can be learned from Passover. The book by looking at Israel’s past (good and bad) asks people to take a real look at where themselves (and our nation) spiritually. The key is: Don’t take a look at where church leaders say we are (they are like politicians, always wanting us to think their side is right), look straight into reality.

In my political conversations this year, I have learned one lesson, people don’t read books. Do you read books? Perhaps you should. [I am continually shocked at how many people actually tell me they never read books … how sad!!] Our world would be a kinder place if people spent more time reading and learning about the individuals they talk about. If more people read books to discover reality from the closest sources our world would find fewer lies and more truth on important subjects. When more people who truly education themselves social media will become a better source of information.