Excuses as a Smokescreen to Cover Up Lies

 Typically, in my book, Blame Game, How to Win It, I examine excuses in the context of face saving. I suppose that is the most common cause for excuse-making. However, liars have an additional reason to make excuses: hide lies. In such cases, the excuse implicitly creates the pretense that there was no underlying lie.

Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash

A typical illustration is the illegal border crossing "invasion" occurring in the U.S. The cause is that Central Americans know that if they can get across the border, most of them will be allowed to stay. All the signals from the U.S government are that illegals are now welcome. We stopped the construction of the wall, we "catch and release" immigrants, we provide free food, medical care, and housing, at least for a time, and we transport them to various sanctuary cities in the U.S.  All of this is the new immigration policy created by President Biden (not Congress).

In the May 1, 2021 issue of the New York Post, the editorial board quoted Biden as blaming former President Trump. Many former immigration officials had quit (which is typical when a new administration arrives to put its own people in charge. Biden failed to point out that Trump had actually expanded the border control staff. Biden failed to point out the illegal immigration had slowed to a trickle because of Trump policies (border wall, agreements with Mexico and Central America governments to halt the inflow, deportation instead of catch and release. On day 1 of his Presidency, Biden stopped wall construction and deportations, plus soon providing implicit incentives for more illegal immigration.

So, the lies and deception are clear. Despite the fact that only 15% of the public believe Biden's lies about immigration, he persists. Politicians have learned that repeating lies again and again gradually increases the number of people who believe the lies. The blaming of Trump is a way for Biden to avoid taking responsibility, while at the same time creating the pretense that Biden's new welcome invitation to illegals is not a fact. It also allows Biden to continue his goal of changing the voting demographics in the U.S. to give more advantage to Democrats.