So true.

Politicians don’t value the actual impact of speech, only the political impact of it. That’s, of course, why they, if you’ll excuse the term, lie and contradict themselves without any real compulsion — no sense of guilt at all.

It’s not, “Was what I said consistent with reality and my values?” It’s, “Was what I said politically viable, functional? Did it work?”

It’s also why they can say, of an opponent or an opponent’s position, “It’s Armageddon, the end of our country, the sky will fall, our women will be raped and our children will be enslaved!” and then become surprise that someone acts as if what they said was fact. Because they, of course, knew they were making political statements, not the same as actual observations. And political statements don’t count.

Of course, then there’s the question: do they, themselves, believe what they say?

This falls into what my friends at the ad agency might call breathing your own exhaust. Look at black and call it white long enough and it does begin to look a bit whitish to you.

So now the politician can add “sincerity” to his or her defense. You can see it in their eyes, “I didn’t really mean to actually assault someone, I siiiiincerely didn’t.”

To be fair, all of the above applies well beyond the political world. But, in these days right after the passage of healthcare legislation, it seems particularly applicable.