Honesty, common sense needed in politicians

To the editor:
The Senate hearing on Benghazi was a microcosm of the gross ineptness that has led America to the brink of moral and financial ruin. Democrats and Republicans alike showed little real interest in unveiling the truth.
Their star witness, Hillary Clinton, did not enter the hearing room as a mere mortal. She apparently had a godlike halo over her head visible only to the politicians. She deserves an acting award for her performance that was highlighted by a dramatic flinging of the arms and a significant question. “What difference does it make?”
The truth revealed by yet another display of their ineptitude was the only good to emerge from that hearing, but that good will do no good. Truth “makes no difference.”
For example, the $16.5 trillion debt is an undeniable truth. It can be seen and felt by millions of ordinary citizens struggling to make ends meet and millions more who cannot make ends meet, but it “makes no difference” to President Obama or Congress. With reference to their deeds, not their words, it is business as usual including illegal earmarks.
Incidentally, the children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the old incumbents in Congress won’t have to worry about paying their share of the national debt. They will have plenty of money from the wealth created with our corrupted tax dollars way back in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Another long ignored truth that has “made no difference” is our insane foreign policy. It needs no further description than the vision of an indigenous citizen hurling his shoes at George W. Bush’s head. That picture’s worth exceeds a thousand words, but “what difference has its truth made?”
If our politicians had a genuine interest in uncovering the truth about Benghazi, they would have summoned the individuals in the chain of command from Benghazi to the White House on Sept. 12, 2012, and they would have put them under oath and asked each of them one question. “Did you order the two former Navy Seals to stand down?” When they identified that person, they would have then continued up the chain of command until they identified the culprit who originated the authority for that order. End of story.
Instead of a responsible search for the truth, Clinton and her accomplices presented America with an exercise in drivel, grovel, and sycophantic disgrace, given the horrific tragedy in question.
Sadly, truth can be found only in a dictionary these days. It is a wonder that the latest Webster did not label the word truth antiquated.
What we desperately need in our elected politicians is simple honesty augmented with enough common sense and courage to recognize that right and wrong have opposite meanings. That recognition alone would rescue the America envisioned by our founding fathers.
Will simple honesty ever be observed and faithfully applied on Capitol Hill? Not as long as voters permit politicians to grow old and wealthy in Congress.
Shafter Bailey
Lexington, formerly of Lawrenceburg