Dear editor:
At first, it seemed that truth was the victim of the 2016 presidential campaign. So many bloated and erroneous statements have been made about Clinton, Trump, et. al., that it is difficult to separate what's real from what's fantasy. Clinton's emails -- none she received were classified, none she sent were classified. The Benghazi story -- no discoveries of purposeful deception. Ted Cruz's father was involved with Oswald in the JFK assassination. And now Dennis Hastert -- the longest-running liar in modern American politics. It's crazy the degree to which certain nominees counted on our skepticism and inability to judge for ourselves that now anything is possible.
Welcome to victim No. 2 -- integrity. Of all the exaggerations and inappropriate utterances by candidates and politicians who disagreed with Donald Trump, we are now asked to accept contrition. Really? Have we forgotten all the "over my dead body" and "no, no, a thousand times no" statements?
So now, suddenly, all is forgotten. John McCain can forgive this guy for proclaiming his lack of heroism because he was caught. Lindsay Graham can reverse his stated hatred and disrespect of Trump in the name of unity? Unity? What kind of unity is that -- the unity of the small mind?
We have truly lost our sanity. We deserve what we get. I can only hope there is a special hell for lying, scheming politicians who have betrayed our trust and faith in a system that should have bigger than us all. For indeed, we will be lost, and no amount of righteousness will save us from the selves that we have become. Devolution has arrived.
Michael Preble
Hot Springs
Editorial on 05/25/2016