The Liar(Martin Green) 2024Liar (Approx. 500 wds.)
The Liar

J.D. (for Joseph Donald) Blankenship was in his high school conselor’s office again and for the usual reasons, cheating and lying. He’d cheated on his final exams and had lied about it, insisting he was innocent even though he’d been caught in the act. “I give up,” said the councelor, a Mr. Goodwin. “You’re incorrigible. Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

J.D. shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I was just born this way.”

“Well, one thing is for certain, your career path is obvious. Go into politics.”

Despite his cheating and lying, J.D. graduated high school because the prevailing educational rule was to pass everyone or they might suffer a loss of self-esteem. In college and even law school J.D. managed to get through by his cheating and lying and of course he paid someone to take his bar exam for him. Mr. Goodwin’s advice to go into politics had been made half-jokingly but J.D. took it seriously. He started by running for his town’s council.

Not many people were interested in being on the town council, especially since it paid nothing, so an ambitious and willing young law school graduate was elected and after he’d served a term his party nominated him for the state assembly. J.D. was elected by making all kinds of promises he never intended to keep and as soon as he was elected began ingratiating himself with the party bosses and donors by doing any favors they asked of him. One of the state’s senators was caught having an affair with an intern and so his seat became vacant. The party bosses and donors pushed J.D. and his party traditionally won that seat so at the tender young age of 40 J.D. found himself a United States Senator.

Once he was settled in Washington and the Senate, J.D. became the darling of the lobbyists, who soon discovered he’d do any favors they asked of him, as long as he was suitably rewarded. Along the way, he wooed the daughter of his most powerful lobbyist. She was extremely ugly so both she and her father were grateful and J.D. was welcomed into their wealthy family.

In the next presidential election his party needed a candidate for vice president and as he was still young, comparatively, rich, a family man and loyal, J.D. was chosen. The party’s candidate for president was an older man with few qualifications but his opponent was even worse so he was elected and J.D. became Vice President. Four years later it became apparent that the President was too old to run again and so J.D. was made the candidate. The same terrible candidate of the other party ran again and J.D. was elected by a slim margin. So there he was, President of the United States.

When J.D. was invited to speak at his old high school he found that his old counselor Mr. Goodwin was still there. J.D. went into his office and told him, “Going into politics was the best advice anyone ever gave me. And that’s no lie.”

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