Dishonesty

Like a nightmare the never ends, an election season that already seems far too long now kicks into high gear. The GOP field is diverse in virtually every respect and although currently dominated by a less-than-idea frontrunner, Donald Trump, the field does offer choices—not all good, but choices nonetheless. On the Democrat side, we have two candidates that are ... well, ... challenging. Hillary Clinton, the titular front runner, is dishonest and corrupt. Bernie Sanders is a cryto-communist whose extreme class-warfare solutions would push the United States in the direction of Venezuela. But at least Sanders is honest about his positions and his ideology.

During the eight years of the Obama administration political dishonesty has been elevated to an art form. All administrations stretch the truth, but insulated by a media that fawned over his presidency, Obama and his Team of 2s became blatant in their dishonesty, knowing that it wouldn't be seriously questioned in the mainstream media. Whether it was the IRS scandal, in which the administration lied about virtually every aspect of the investigation (recall that Barack Obama himself told us that the case was isolated to a small group in Cincinnati); the Benghazi scandal in which Obama, Clinton and other members of the Team of 2s lied repeatedly when they claimed that a planned terrorist attack was a video protest, the Obamacare run-up when Obama knowing lied about one's ability to "keep your doctor and your insurance;" terrorist attacks sold as workplace violence; ... the list is long.

In fact, it's not so much the lying, but the blatant, unapologetic, insulting, in your face manner in which the lies are presented. In essence, the Obama administration, when faced with a scandal, repeated says, Who do you believe, me or your lying eyes?

Of course, the Obama administration approach is S.O.P. for Hillary Clinton. Michael Goodwin writes:

Spin and puffery have a long history in politics, but something has snapped in our culture that we no longer even expect our leaders to talk straight. We have become immune to lies and the ­liars who tell them.

I blame it on the Clintons. Their survival despite a quarter-century of shameful dishonesty has lead the way in lowering the bar for ­integrity in public life.

One result is the disgust that most Americans have for government. Another is that many voters are willing to overlook other deficiencies in anyone they believe is honest, such as Trump and Bernie Sanders. Americans desperate for the truth will sacrifice traditional litmus tests to get it.

We would have better politics and be a better country if we had stopped the Clintons years ago. It was obvious before his election that Bill Clinton was a stranger to truth, and it soon became obvious that Hillary was no better. Recall the sensation in 1996 when the late William Safire used his New York Times column to speak in shockingly plain terms about ­Hillary.

“Americans of all political persuasions are coming to the sad ­realization that our First Lady — a woman of undoubted talents who was a role model for many in her generation — is a congenital liar,” he began, 20 years ago this month.

“Drip by drip, like Whitewater torture, the case is being made that she is compelled to mislead, and to ensnare her subordinates and friends in a web of deceit.”

The sad reality is that now, every government pronouncement, every report, every speech offered by our political leadership must be filtered to determine the level of dishonesty.

But actually, it's even worse than that. Were Hillary Clinton to become president, the truth would become unmoored. She lies and then modifies her lies to cover for earlier lies, the re-modifies them still more. When cornered, she obfuscates (top secret documents weren't marked top secret; her private server was for convenience only), plays the victim ("a vast conspiracy is out to get me" [paraphrase]), and in what can only be called massive chutzpa, attacks her critics' integrity when they point out inconsistencies and facts that were inflicted by Clinton on herself.

There's a reason that almost three quarters of the American public thinks Hillary Clinton is dishonest. She is.