Truth of the Year

In fact, I should say "Truth of the Decades." Kevin Drum says it out loud. It's now profitable to lie, especially if you're a politician.

It also doesn't matter. Politicians have increasingly discovered over the past couple of decades that even on a national stage you can lie pretty blatantly and pay no price, since the mainstream media, trapped in its culture of objectivity, won't really call you on it, limiting themselves to fact checking pieces like Kessler's buried on an inside page. And because virtually nobody except political junkies ever see this stuff, it doesn't hurt their campaigns at all.

There used to a be a common expression in the world, long ago when I was young. "A man's word is his bond." Time was when honorable men advanced in life by dint of their reputation for honesty. To be caught in a calculated campaign of lies would surely lead to being cast out of civil society. Today honest and honorable men are viewed as losers.

There's no profit in honesty. We're all poorer now that dishonesty is no longer condemned as vice, but rather celebrated as clever tactic to achieve success.

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]