Today’s reader poll on perceptions of the honesty of political adversaries produced some really interesting results. With about 1100 responses so far, the results suggest that each side has the same view of the other. About 45% of respondents, both liberal and conservative, saw no difference between the honesty of liberals and conservatives. But about 50% thought that the other side is less honest. And about half of those, 25% of the total, thought that the other side is much less honest than their side. About 5% thought that the other side was more honest.
What’s the lesson? It’s obvious, I think: Our side correctly recognizes the dishonesty of the other side — and the other side is so dishonest that it pretends to have honesty on its side. Surely this is the ultimate proof that the other side is a bunch of rascals.