WALES, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND BRAZIL ALL HAVE LAWS THAT PUNISH OR REMOVE ELECTED OFFICIALS WHO LIE AND SPREAD DISINFORMATION DURING ELECTIONS.
● Wales anti- lying laws: Recall Process: The legislation establishes a process giving the electorate a vote on whether a politician found guilty of deliberately misleading the public should continue to serve in the Senedd.
● Brazil: The Clean Slate Law, which sites a politicians “abuse of power” or ” misuse of the media” to influence the election process, as cause to disqualify a person from running in the present election and for the following eight years.
● France’s anti-lying law: The “anti-lying law” in France refers to the Law Against the Manipulation of Information (Law No. 2018-1202), passed in November 2018 at the behest of President Emmanuel Macron. [1, 2] Designed to protect democratic elections from disinformation.
● Germany’s anti-lying laws: Electoral Fraud (e.g., Manipulation of Results): If a candidate commits criminal fraud or tampering to influence an election, they face disqualification.Defamation or Libel: While political candidates are heavily criticized, if they are convicted of deliberate, malicious disinformation that demeans a specific person’s character (under Section 186 or 187 of the German Criminal Code), it is a criminal offense.
Weissmann concludes that the United States should take political lying as seriously as other democracies do. Grappling with the complex issue of removing candidates from office or restricting their speech to protect the fairness and integrity of elections is essential now that we have seen the far-reaching damage America has suffered under the corrupt lying by Trump and his administration.
In his new book, Liars Kingdom, former DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann does a deep dive into the issue of the acceptance, tolerance, and normalization of lying in American politics. He calls lying to the electorate a dangerous and immoral strategic tool to dupe people into voting for them based on false promises and false negatives about their opponents. Voting for people who lie has gotten America into an economic and moral spiral that has shocked the world. Weissmann proposes cracking down on “intentional falsehoods that damage elections, such as introducing a “Truth in Elections Act” without violating the First Amendment.
Weissmann draws on how other democracies treat political lies. He argues for new legislation that could either criminalize election-altering lies (similar to the Stolen Valor Act) or legally disqualify politicians from holding office if they are found guilty of propagating them. He also points out the hypocrisy of American laws that criminalize people lying to Congress and juries and yet allow elected officials to lie to the public.
Congress is not above the law. Raise their healthcare premiums, give them less vacation time, and disallow stock trading, and let’s see how many of them continue to run for office.
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The post America Must Follow The Example Of Allied Democracies And Pass Anti- Lying Laws For Politicians. appeared first on Baby Boomer Resistance: A Pro-Democracy Blog.
