LIES ARE THE NEW TRUTH: When did honesty stop being important

What happened? What happened between the time I was a kid growing up in America..... and now.

This Presidential election has framed, perhaps as much as any other issue, that we as Americans are very tolerant of deceit and lies. We aren’t even sensitized to it anymore---we expect it. It’s built into the calculus. It’s worthless trying to distinguish yourself from your competition on this matter because we just don’t care. Just ask Bernie Sanders. Both Trump and HRC, the only two major candidates for President, are considered untrustworthy by more than 2/3 of the voters. Hillary supporters claim that Hillary is more honest than Trump in the same week that Hillary went on national TV and lied about the lies she has been telling for the last year. It’s worse than you might think…

It is true that Trump is a new kind of liar…he doesn’t even try and hide it…he does it with attitude…but, Hillary’s disengagement with the truth is no small matter.

When you tell the American public over and over that you were under sniper fire when you debarked a plane in Bosnia when video shows that the conditions were serene, then you have a big problem…you have a person who is not just loose with the truth…she is trying to completely deceive you into thinking that something is totally different than it was…for personal gain. That is pathological in my opinion...bordering on mental illness.

And, she repeatedly lied about it….until the video was released...and then she said that she was tired that day and she must have misremembered.

Trump lies more than he tells the Truth….and that is no exaggeration. He doesn’t even consider if something is true before he says it. If he were Pinocchio his nose would be approaching Saturn's rings by now.

But, back to the subject of this blog…this isn’t about going case by case how both of these candidates lack honesty and integrity….

This is about us, the American people…..those two candidates for President who less than 33% of the American people think are honest, will come and go….this election says much more about us than it does about them…..

We, as citizens of this country, are supposed to set the bar….we, as a society, are supposed to set a standard of acceptability, below which we define as unacceptable. That standard should put honesty in the “given” category…maybe politicians have always been just as dishonest as these two…though I doubt it…maybe the media is just so much better at catching the lies, and technology makes it even easier ..…..yeah, that is probably true…but, Barack Obama is considered by the vast majority to be a man of integrity. Bernie Sanders was perhaps the most trusted and authentic candidate we have ever had….but, with the help of the corrupt DNC, he was discarded. His refreshing brand of public service was not valued by enough. The Wikileaks exposed DNC effort to derail the Sanders campaign only brought a few days of scandal and some brief embarrassment but then back to the basics...ho hum. That should have brought about an apocalypse...but it barely ruffled a feather.

The Germans back in the 30's and 40's were not equipped or autonomous enough to prevent the rise of Hitler (and his lies). They sat there like tadpoles in a pond...they put up no resistance...Hitler couldn't have gotten two steps without the German citizens acquiescing to his lies and tyranny. I bet even Hitler didn't think it was going to be that easy...it was very easy...a few bold red logos and uniforms and pomp and circumstance and he had them (all) in a trance. It lasted until the end....13 years and before it was over there were 60 million dead. The Germans didn't do any fact checking. They drank all of the beer in one swig.....they didn't have wikileaks or the internet. We do...but it isn't making much difference.

If we continue to allow ourselves to be deceived and lied to we deserve the fate we inherit. If our critical thinking skills and standards are compromised and lulled to sleep because of glitter and falling red, white, and blue balloons then we haven't learned anything from history.

Vietnam was a lie...Iraq was a lie. That is millions dead right there and unspeakable suffering....LBJ created a false excuse for military involvement in Vietnam. He lied about what happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August of 64' because he wanted to look strong and tough when faced with opponent Barry Goldwater for re-election. The lies of the Iraq War and the "WMD's" are fresh enough in our mind so that we don't have to paint that picture. Virtually the entire United States Senate(s) fell for those colossal lies. 98 out of 100 U.S. Senators voted to go to war in Vietnam in '64 over the fabricated altercation sold by LBJ. 77 out of 100 U.S. Senators voted to go to war with Iraq over a total lie about WMD's. It's much better to trust the flip of a coin then the judgment and critical thinking skills (and honesty) of an elected official.

What do we say to our children? Clearly, honesty can’t be a value that we care much about…or else we would demand it from those we put into power…think about it…we are putting these people into positions of tremendous power and authority…but, they are also entrusted with being our standard bearers of human ethics, morality, and values....as a nation. What can we ask of our 9 year old sons or daughters when the leader of the free world is completely un-trusted, lies all the time, and is knowingly corrupt?

And, it’s not like our religious leaders are much better.

I can understand making bad decisions or using poor judgment…there is plenty of that, too, in these two candidates….but blatant lies…a fundamental comfort with lying….with no remorse…that is just not something that I want my kids, or anyone’s kids to model. Being a sexist or a racist is one form of poison, but a total disregard with the Truth is more fundamentally problematic than even that…

I remember reading a poll that asked women what they value most in a man…the answer was "honesty". My response is always….how pathetic! Our collective performance as men is so poor that all we have to be is honest for a woman to think we possess the characteristics of true love everlasting. Shouldn't "Honesty” always be a given?…it shouldn’t be a lofty aspiration.

What are we if we are not honest….what are we if our word is worthless…what are we if we can sleep at night after perpetuating lies. If I can't trust a person to be truthful I have no use for them. It has to be one of the most disturbing of all human characteristics because it is so fundamental.

I like the truth sometimes, but I don't care enough for it to hanker after it - Mark Twain (dripping with his usual sarcasm)

I seriously think our moral compass as a society is seriously lacking……as reflected in this election by how effortlessly we tolerate dishonesty and sleaze….

I was always taught that lying was just not an option for an honorable person….I was taught to be honest and then “let the chips fall where they may”.

If the next generation of Americans cheats at school, or lies on their job applications, or cheats in sports or in personal interactions….who should we blame? I have an answer for you and it's not Hillary or Trump...it's ourselves...you and me!

I will even go a step further and say that our standards for human behavior in general need adjusting…our sports stars lie and cheat….and no one cares. When Tom Brady had his equipment manager deflate the footballs well below league minimums in order to be able to grip them better in bad weather and in order to gain a clear advantage over the opposition we didn’t really care…he cheated on the biggest stage this country offers….and many wrote it off as “silly”. That is the problem right there….when cheating in order to win a game that sways perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in your favor is not taken seriously…..something is badly in disrepair.

Take a look at golf for example. Golf is a sport that has it’s own culture and it’s own code of ethics. It always has. If you play golf on a competitive level then you know going in that cheating will not be tolerated. It is so firmly entrenched into the culture of the sport that golfers are entrusted to call penalties on themselves…and they often do, even if no one was watching or there to witness the infraction. A cheater on the PGA tour will not be tolerated. He will lose endorsements…..he will fall like a stone. Make no mistake...this isn't boxing. I can’t even think of a PGA golfer (ever) who was either known for or caught cheating.

The other sports have different cultures and different standards for honesty and integrity, etc.. In football it is just a given that you can cheat..or try to cheat…you can step out of bonds and try and act like you didn’t. You can trap a thrown ball instead of catching it and you pretend you caught it legally. In basketball you can foul someone and act like you never touched them. In soccer it is increasingly boorish to watch these players feign being fouled by their opponent. It has practically taken over the game.

And, to talk about our diminishing societal standards…can you imagine if 30 years ago we had music lyrics like the ones coming from Rap music? We would be appalled…shocked…the degradation and objectification of women, the ubiquitous use of the “F” word, the popularization and normalization of the word, “Bitch”.

We don’t really care anymore…..we don't protest unjust wars, like they did during Vietnam. We aren't outraged anymore the way we were when we chronicled the Nixon lies on tape. We are taking it all lying down.

But, back to honesty….is it just too much these days to expect someone to be honest…? If a candidate was a repentant former child molester or rapist…would we tolerate that? I doubt that very much…but I could foresee the day if we stay on this present trajectory where we might tolerate the latter if it means we can get our taxes lowered, and stuff like that….

To be sure we are going in the right direction in some ways....we are accepting and in some cases, embracing the LGBT community, same sex marriage, etc., but we are also tolerating some very objectionable and highly troubling characteristics. They are fundamental to civility and decency on every level.

The truth is the only thing worth having, and, in a civilized life, like ours, where so many risks are removed, facing it is almost the only courageous thing left to do. ~E.V. Lucas

Food for thought....