Our comprehension of this word is so shallow, the place to start is the dictionary. The first definition at Dictionary.com is:

The act of catering to or profiting from the weaknesses, vices, or unreasonable desires of others.

It’s a synonym for lying – the heartland obsession of the new America!

The example that inspired me to write this blog might help. The New York Times ran an article about state superintendent for Oklahoma’s public schools, Ryan Walters. In the first paragraph, the Times described Walters as “a former high school history teacher, [who] has transformed himself into one of the most strident culture warriors in a state known for sharp-edged conservative politics.”

This transformation happens a lot when someone decides to be a politician. In his previous life as a high school history teacher, a student who took Walters’ history classes said, “Walters would go out of his way to be apolitical,” adding that “he gave little indication of his political views” according to the Times. Today, Walters “has been an unapologetic lightning rod in Oklahoma, mounting direct verbal attacks on school districts, teachers’ unions and occasionally individual teachers.”

So, what changed?

My guess is that Walters discovered the magic formula for election success: Pandering. Representing all of the people and leading by building consensus just doesn’t work anymore. Telling a hard core what they want to hear is what works. (It works here in Utah too.)

Another example of is the remarkable transformation of Nikki Haley from Trump-can-do-no-wrong doormat to anti-Trump warrior. Which Nikki Haley is the real Nikki Haley? Does it matter? She will evidently be the whatever Nikki Haley someone wants her to be at the moment. As I write this, her former constituents in South Carolina are deciding whether the particular worm she was formerly riding to power has turned too late. I’m guessing that it turned too late. Her former constituents want her to pander to their “weaknesses, vices, or unreasonable desires”. They don’t want to hear that their most cherished beliefs about Trump, their tent-preacher du jour, have been wrong.