Mystery Solved

For months I have been puzzled about the meteoric rise of Donald Trump in the polls. I have also been puzzled by the staying power of Hillary Clinton as the choice of Democrats for president of our once-great nation.
For the life of me, I just could not figure out how both Democrats and Republicans could choose candidates who have perfected the dark art of lying. This is not even considering the narcissism of Clinton and the uber-narcissim of Trump.
How is it possible that the electorate can continually be informed of these shenanigans and keep supporting the perpetrators? I was stumped!
Finally, I think I have solved the mystery. As a nation, we no longer consider moral transgressions to be all that important. It should not be a surprise to those of us who have witnessed the moral decline of our nation.
I am not going to rehearse the indicators of moral decline. Most readers (those not living under a rock somewhere) don’t need to be reminded of the symptoms. Suffice it to say, some people are getting by with behavior that once in our history would have spelled the end of their public careers. Without moral restraints, anything goes!
So, Donald Trump keeps rising in the polls in spite of lies, insulting comments about women and Mexicans and anybody else who gets in his way. Are we actually willing to see this creature inhabit the oval office with no reason to expect a change in his behavior?
So, Hillary Clinton remains the Democratic candidate of choice regardless of her all-to-obvious penchant for bending and breaking the truth…once again without expecting her to become honest and trustworthy as president.
Really? Are these our choices? Have we really come to this? Two candidates who have both chosen the dark side? Can’t we do better? Have honesty, integrity, humility, dignity, honor, equality and justice become unimportant moral tenets?