The classic stereotype of dishonesty and deception involves the used car salesman.  In my case, the allusion became literal.  After having found myself aghast at the obvious and blatant lies told by a salesman, I walked out of the car lot, knowing he was just wasting my time.

Later on, I was listening to a televised speech made by Bill Clinton and quickly got exactly the same feeling.  I switched off the television and have never again listened to anything the Clintons say.  They're lying.  Why waste my time?

It's years later, and once again, that very same moment is being relived – but this time, it's not just the Democrats.  To my dismay, I have belatedly come to the conclusion that the great majority of politicians are just what their dismal stereotype says they are:  self-serving, hypocritical cheats (many expletives deleted).  They're lying.  As the crew of the Titanic tries to plug the holes, the politicians, who caused the sinking, are looting the ship's safe and bribing the crew to reserve the lifeboats to prevent the riffraff from climbing into them.

I could name a small number of exceptions, but I dread doing so for fear that tomorrow, I will discover that even they are cowards, scoundrels, and thieves.  Indeed, in recent weeks, I have felt made a fool by ever having thought well of several.  The scant few to whom I still give some benefit of doubt, I will not name, because now I am cynical and suspicious, fearing that even they have pulled the wool over my credulous eyes.

Is there any hope?

Fortunately, I find solace in the Old Testament account of King David and in the New Testament account of the Apostles.  David, the man who was after God's own heart, did not just cheat with another man's wife; he murdered her husband.  The apostles, who dwelt daily with Jesus for years, managed to miss His message so thoroughly that they quarreled over which of them would sit at the Messiah's right hand.

Yet, except for Judas, they all had their epiphanies, their moment of sudden insight and repentance.  For David, it occurred at the accusing hand of the prophet Nathan, and for the apostles by the Holy Spirit.

For those who disbelieve in divine providence, I can say nothing.  For the rest of us, our world is not darkness, and defeat is never futility.  Just as my personal life has been punctuated by miraculous rescues from my own folly, so also is American history, despite our failings, suffused with evidence of a manifest destiny that has nothing to do with geography. 

America will survive.  It will prosper.  So long as there are ten good Americans, patriots committed to a nobler cause than secular greed, a guiding hand will lift us up and carry us forward.  Although we may be every bit as deplorable as Hillary said we are, we rely not on our own righteousness, but rather on our faith that we are called to righteousness.  His courage becomes our courage and His victory ours.

Disbelieve if you will.  I cannot blame you, for neither did I for many years.  Then, one day, the liars ran out of lies, and I was forced to seek Truth.  I didn't find it, but by the grace of God, it found me.  I continue to fail and fall short, but now I am confident in the future – not only for myself, but for the nation whose motto is "In God We Trust."