By: Phil Williams
Is anyone else tired of liberals crying wolf?
We’ve all heard the Aesop’s fable of the boy who cried, “Wolf!” As the tale goes, a young boy cried, “Wolf!” alarming the people of the village who came running to protect their flocks. It was a lark, and the boy laughed at their panic. Enjoying himself, he cried, “Wolf!” a second time, and once again the villagers rushed out to the field only to see the boy laughing at them. Then a real wolf came, but when he cried, “Wolf!” the third time, no one believed him, and the boy became wolf food.
On its face, the fable of the boy who cried wolf is about trust, truthfulness, and loyalty. But I imagine that somewhere in the backstory is a negative example that led the fictional boy to believe he could lie for effect and get away with it. The boy was wrong, he knew it, and he deserved the consequences of leading people to believe there was an emergency when there wasn’t. But “crying wolf” is often a learned behavior. Knuckleheads don’t want to do what’s necessary to get a job done, earn a promotion, or take responsibility, so they manufacture a crisis by crying wolf and leverage the lie for their own purposes.
Liberal Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson does this daily. A former teachers’ union activist, Johnson is a man who has never led anything in his life, yet serves as the chief executive of one of the largest, most dynamic cities in the world. If stupid was a crime, Brandon Johnson would be facing a life sentence. Johnson takes to the microphone daily claiming President Trump is personally arresting black men, using rhetoric like fascist, Nazi, and thugs when speaking about law enforcement. The activist mayor recently claimed that the right side of politics is trying to incite a “rematch of the Civil War.” He signed an executive order setting up so-called “ICE-free zones” and requested that citizens of Chicago rise up and resist ICE. His behavior is galling, it is foolish, and is clear evidence that somewhere along the way Brandon Johnson was taught that crying wolf is a tactic. A strategy. A tool in the political toolbox.
What example does that give to the younger generation? A story broke a few years ago that answers the question quite well.
The 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base dealt with a young black enlisted man alleging that a white superior officer had denied him a requested special duty. In response to his inquiry, the white superior allegedly responded that “the Air Force is looking for somebody of white complexion and with the image that the Air Force needs.” It turned into a whole thing, as you might imagine.
The allegations fell in an era of hyper-sensitivity in the wake of BLM riots and claims by the Biden administration of systemic racism in the military ranks. But despite the political climate, the allegations were proven false. He cried wolf for the sole purpose of trying to advance his personal career. Instead, he wound up eaten by the wolf, facing punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Did he really think that he would get away with it? In my humble opinion, it was just another situation where the boy cried wolf, yet doing so was a learned behavior. He felt the political winds and saw politicians and pundits literally kneeling in front of protestors. Erstwhile Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had issued an operational shutdown filled with histrionic assertions of extremism, racism and sexism in the US Military. Millions of man hours were lost in the wake of the cries of wolf. The Heritage Foundation called it a solution in search of a problem. Why would the young Airman not think that he could get away with it? He learned that crying wolf is okay.
Fast forward again to Chicago’s Brandon Johnson. Lump in Oregon Governor Tina Kotek or Congressman Dan Goldman with whom I sparred recently on CNN. None of them or any of their peers wish to acknowledge the harm that their cries of wolf are doing to their constituents. Denying on the one hand that problems exist on the streets of their represented cities and towns, they instead cry wolf, labeling Trump as the fomenter of discord and terror. That same rhetoric then educates impressionable minds that they must commit more acts of violence against law enforcement and riot in the streets.
All that crazy rhetoric does is teach young minds to cry wolf.
I heard an older lawyer remind a jury that of one of the opposing witnesses had been caught lying on the stand. He followed by telling them that his grandad used to say, “You lie about a little, you’ll lie about a lot.” Politicos and pundits who scream that the sky is falling, who cry wolf at the drop of a hat, evidence a willingness to lie to get their way. If they will lie about one thing what else are they lying about?
Ronald Reagan once said, “America was built on the voluntary principle by good neighbors who knew that they had to rely on each other.” That’s true. But it’s hard to rely on a liar, and lying is often a learned behavior.
Politicians need to stop crying wolf. A civil society emerges from truth.
By: Phil Williams
