When Telling the Truth Becomes Treason

“If you say that everything your opponent does is evil—even when it helps you or others—maybe you’re the problem.”

In current American politics, there’s a curious law of thermodynamics at play: when one party does something good, the other party must label it evil—or risk spontaneous combustion by way of social media mob. It’s not a law of nature. It’s worse—it’s a law of manufactured false narrative.

We’re no longer governed by logic or outcomes. We’re governed by team jerseys and algorithms. And the first rule of modern politics is simple: your opponent is always wrong. Even when they’re not.

---

The Age of Manufactured Villains

Politicians today are less public servants and more professional wrestlers. Every speech is a promo. Every hearing is a carefully scripted Hollywood production. The party line must be protected at all costs—so inconvenient truths must be minimized, altered, or omitted.

This is how you end up with grown adults pretending a bill is evil because it got co-sponsored by the other party. Or how a public health policy goes from patriotic to tyrannical overnight, depending on which party is in the Oval Office.

There is no room for nuance when your constituency (enflamed by you) is foaming at the mouth and your reelection depends on rage clicks. Once you’ve convinced your voters that the other side is the moral equivalent of Satan, what happens when Satan does something objectively good?

You either admit your enemy isn’t pure evil—or you call a lifeboat a war crime.
Guess which one wins primaries?

---

The Incentive Is Hypocrisy

Incentives drive behavior, and the incentive in modern American politics is not to be honest, effective, or even consistent. The incentive is to score points against “them,” whoever “they” are this cycle—and to tell voters what they want to hear, regardless of any intention to follow through.

---

Border Security Whiplash

In 2019, the Trump administration diverted $3.6 billion in Pentagon funding—including money earmarked for military schools and daycare centers—to build segments of the southern border wall. Democrats denounced the move as unconstitutional and immoral. (Reuters, 2019)

Then in 2023, the Biden administration quietly approved additional wall construction in South Texas. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas waived 26 federal laws to allow the expansion, citing an “acute and immediate need” for physical barriers—drawing public rebuke from many progressives and environmental groups. (Reuters, 2023)

So, the wall was racist… until it was necessary. The Pentagon was being raided… until the new raid came from the other side. Nothing changed but the jerseys.

---

Executive Order Flip-Flops

Obama was branded a tyrant for using executive orders to bypass gridlock, especially on immigration reform. In 2014, GOP leaders like Mitch McConnell and John Boehner condemned his actions as illegal overreach.

Then came Trump, who issued a record-setting flurry of executive actions—including controversial ones on travel bans, deregulation, and military policy—with full-throated support from the same voices. (Reuters, 2017)

And then Biden, criticized by both sides—progressives for not doing enough, and Republicans for doing too much—with a comparable volume of executive activity. It’s not about the method. It’s about who’s holding the pen.

---

A Few Greatest Hits (of Hypocrisy)

Let’s dig into some bipartisan whiplash greatest hits. Names change. Arguments don’t.

1. The Filibuster

• In 2005, Senator Joe Biden called the filibuster a crucial protection for minority voices in the Senate. (Congressional Record, May 2005)
• In 2021, President Joe Biden labeled the same tool a “Jim Crow relic” when it blocked voting legislation he supported.
• Republicans, meanwhile, nuked the filibuster in 2017 to confirm Neil Gorsuch with a simple majority, and then clutched their pearls when Democrats discussed doing the same for legislation. (Reuters, 2017)

The filibuster isn’t sacred or evil. It’s just a pawn.

2. Federal Emergency Powers

• During COVID-19, Democratic governors like Gavin Newsom and Andrew Cuomo used sweeping emergency powers for lockdowns and mandates—praised by some and derided by Red states.
• Republican governors like Ron DeSantis used the same emergency authority to block mask mandates and reopen early—celebrated by some, vilified by others.
• When wildfires or hurricanes hit Blue states, emergency powers were invoked again, this time with solemn approval.

No one hates the powers. They just hate when the other guy uses them.

---

The Cult of the Infallible Tribe

Once your side is always right and the other side is always evil, you’re no longer in a democracy. You’re in a cult.

Cult logic is simple:

• If our guy lies, it’s leadership.
• If their guy tells the truth, it’s propaganda.
• If we obstruct, it’s patriotism.
• If they obstruct, it’s treason.

This is what happens when loyalty to party (or initiatives) overrides loyalty to principle. There is no internal correction mechanism. No incentive to admit mistakes. No political reward for honesty.

---

Real Problems, Zero Solutions

This hypocrisy would be funny if it didn’t cost real people everything.

• Veterans are still killing themselves at a rate exceeding 17 per day, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. (VA, 2023 Report)
• Over 650,000 Americans are homeless, including more than 33,000 veterans. (HUD PIT Count, 2023)
• The U.S. military faces serious readiness concerns, from recruiting shortfalls to crumbling infrastructure. (GAO Report, 2023)

And Congress? Congress is holding hearings on TikTok, gas stoves, and generally performing sleight-of-hand magic.

---

A Veteran’s Take: Life Ain’t a Team Sport

In combat, teams don’t ask who someone voted for before clearing a building. You don’t break into ideological cliques on a FOB. You fight beside whoever’s next to you—because you don’t have the luxury of picking teams.

Politics today is cosplay for people who’ve mostly never deployed, let alone served. It’s war-as-metaphor with none of the risk and all of the self-congratulation.

Let’s be honest: If most of Congress had to go on a deployment—MREs, Cadillac toilets, no social media—they’d frag their own officers within 72 hours and melt into a pile of OCP-colored, quivering goo.

---

Can This Be Fixed? Maybe. But Not Like This.

We won’t vote our way out of this if the electorate keeps rewarding hypocrisy with applause and airtime. The system works exactly as designed: it feeds on outrage, not outcomes.

It’s okay to say, “That policy was actually smart,” even if it came from the other side. It doesn’t make you a traitor. It makes you a functional adult.

“We don’t need more leaders who treat politics like war. We need leaders who treat it like a republic worth saving.”

Until then, every time something good comes from “the other side,” it will be branded evil—not because it is, but because the narrative demands it.
And the circus must go on.

---

Who’s to Blame?

That’s a pretty simple one to answer: the voters who keep putting partisan politicians back in office. Voters with short memories who pay no attention to what is being said and done. Voters who want their personal needs met rather than what’s best for the country. Voters who allow themselves to be emotionally manipulated by politicians, the press, and social media. And apathetic voters.

In September 2021, California voters rejected the recall attempt against Governor Gavin Newsom by a wide margin—61.9% voted “No” (to retain him) vs. 38.1% “Yes” to recall him, with roughly 12.9 million ballots cast out of 22.06 million registered voters, yielding a 58.5% turnout. Early exit polling and voter data showed Democrats were significantly more engaged than Republicans: around 43% of returning ballots came from Democrats versus 26% from Republicans, with Independents and others making up the remainder.

For all the whining from California conservatives about the liberals ruining things, where were they during the recall vote? Maybe it was just too nice a day in California to be standing in line to vote.

Meanwhile, politicians know that the average voter considers what happened four years ago to be ancient history and has long since data-dumped it. The voters are again enraged and distracted by the current politically fabricated firestorm. And Capitol Hill gleefully presses on.

__________________________________

Dave Chamberlin served 38 years in the USAF and Air National Guard as an aircraft crew chief, where he retired as a CMSgt. He has held a wide variety of technical, instructor, consultant, and leadership positions in his more than 40 years of civilian and military aviation experience. Dave holds an FAA Airframe and Powerplant license from the FAA, as well as a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Science. He currently runs his own consulting and training company and has written for numerous trade publications.

His true passion is exploring and writing about issues facing the military, and in particular, aircraft maintenance personnel.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.