You watched the vice-presidential debate this week between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. I know you did.

The candidates defined the massive ideological and moral divide in our country right now, and I found myself reducing that difference to one single thing: honesty.

One one side you have Republican Mike Pence, a very devout Christian who is so scrupulously honest that he has never once joined a woman in a room without his wife present. Pence does not lie. Pence CANNOT lie. He would explode if he ever told a lie, and he wears his faith proudly on his sleeve.

On the other side you have Kamala Harris, who grew up in the Democrat culture of dishonesty. She launched her political career by sleeping with San Francisco mayor and state assembly speaker Willie Brown, who was married at the time and 41 years her senior. Brown then appointed her to two political posts.

The debate moderator, Susan Page of USA Today, framed every question in a way that was critical to President Trump and his policies. One of her questions stated that despite a fragile economy (not mentioning Trump’s record success before the China Virus) the Biden/Harris website declares their intention to implement the $4.1 trillion “Green New Deal”. She asked Harris to elaborate. Harris responded, “Joe Biden will not ban fracking. That is a fact! That is a fact!” She was either caught in a whopper of a lie, or her campaign’s website is dishonest. There is no wiggle room between the two.

Harris declared at one point that, “On day one, Joe Biden will repeal Trump’s tax cut” and later insisted that “Joe Biden will not increase taxes on anyone making less than $400 thousand dollars per year.” Pence about came out of his shoes, pointing out that eliminating the Trump tax cut would instantly raise taxes for the lowest earners by at least $2000 per year. Harris’s face revealed her embarrassment at being caught again in a bald-faced whopper.

Pence later asked Harris point-blank if she and Biden intended to “stack” the Supreme Court. After several attempts to divert, she shook her head and mumbled a sheepish laugh. Busted again.

Sticking to the Democrat playbook, Harris repeated the Charlottesville quote where Trump said there are “fine people on both sides” of the protest and she conveniently left out the next line in which Trump condemned white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Is there any American so uninformed that they still fall for that lie of omission?

The brazenness of Harris’s dishonesty was shocking and icky to Pence, as it should have been to any alert viewer. It makes one want to wash his hands, regardless of any virus. Exaggeration is expected in a political campaign, and vague promises are commonplace. But in the past, outright lies by candidates had consequences with the voters if proven. Democrats no longer fear having lies blow up in their faces, because, to them, the end now justifies the means, and apparently at least half of Americans no longer value the truth either.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ on the Right Side