The hope was Obama could restore trust in government. He didn’t. Instead, we have reached the point where voters no longer seem able to conjure up the image of an honest and qualified politician. They’ll just choose the one they think is most qualified and live with the treachery.
If the death of trust in politics is real, don’t expect its demise to be any less important this fall in choosing between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Their matching reputations for a flexible approach to the truth will likely cancel each other out. What is more disturbing is that even if one of them were to emerge as clearly more trustworthy, there’s not much reason to believe it would alter the dynamics of the race.
And why would it? The only calculation voters seem to be making is what kind of lies they want to be told.
