I blame Bill Clinton: "I did not ... have ... sexual relations with that woman ... Ms. Lewinsky." After it turned out that finger-wagging huff in front of an entire nation was total bullshit, truth took a blow from which it never recovered. Remember Speaker of the House-designate Bob Livingston resigning in the middle of the Clinton impeachment saga after coming clean that he too had had an affair? He must be kicking himself now, huh?
Over the last quarter century or so, we have evolved from a place where getting caught in a political lie was a fatal offense that needed to be avoided at all costs (JFK; don't-ask-don't-tell) to a place where political lies have to be evaluated based on everything except whether the lie effectively cashes in all a politician's integrity chips.
Remember the Clarence Thomas hearings? Here's how they would go down today: "So I'm a horndog. So friggin' what? Who among us thinks that chasing skirts renders me unfit to judge cases? What, I have to be a monk to wear a robe? You think William O. Douglas was a bad judge?" He had to lie back then and the lie held, but that's not the point. Imagine he writes a bio tomorrow and admits he lied, hairy Coke-can and all. Who's going to float the "I" word? Who's going to give a rat's ass?
Consider Hillary. Do you really believe she did not send a single classified email on her home server, a violation of law? Do you really care? Of course not. She's lying, and we don't care, because she's a thousand times better than anyone the Republicans will nominate in 2016.
Today we have to evaluate each and every lie, not as an integrity-killer, but for its political substance. Is Hillary lying about the emails? Of course, but BFD. Is McCain lying when, years after he lost, he persists in denying that Sarah Palin was utterly unfit to be mayor of Wasilla, let alone Vice President? Yes, but that is no longer a BFD. Did Obama lie when he said in 2008 he didn't support marriage equality? Yes, we now know, and thank God he did. Does every evolution-doubting, climate change-denying Republican really believe the earth is flat? Of course not, and we know it -- they're just pandering.
The problem with The Death of Truth -- truth for its own sake -- is that it leads to lies that really matter, such as this one: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." And lots of lies really matter, and lots of lies that really matter can't be revealed as such until it's too late.
