Government Accountability Institute

The most dangerous currency in American politics today isn’t money — it’s deception. It buys loyalty, distorts reality, and reshapes institutions long before citizens realize the damage. My father had a simple way of warning me to guard against that kind of influence: “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” He wanted me to recognize when someone was lying, conning, or dressing something up to look like value when it wasn’t. I never imagined that my childhood warning would become a civic alarm in my adult life, but it has. For years, politicians have handed Americans political wooden nickels — promises polished to look like truth — and the damage those deceptions have caused is now painfully clear.

In this administration, deception circulates like currency — traded, exchanged, and used to purchase influence, loyalty, and time. It is not merely a habit; it has become a governing strategy — a set of tactics used to acquire power, protect it, and bend institutions to its will. .