At this point,
what difference does it make?

Hillary Clinton shouted at a Congressional Committee hearing on Benghazi.

In that particular case, the reference was to honesty in government.

Mark Steyn has written brilliantly on the subject. A quick read, well worth your time, here.

Steyn suggested we use Hillary's declaration in the oath sworn to by persons chosen for federal office:
 
"Do you solemnly swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?"
"Sure. What difference, at this point, does it make?"


I've thought much about this event, and, like Steyn, considered applying it to other events. It can drive you crazy!

I remember a time when I had great respect for "the Federal government". I held the FBI and the CIA, for example, in awe. They were so competent, so smart, so skilled as to be unmatched. As a teen during WW II, if "the government" had instructed me, to paraphrase Col. Allen West, to walk through hell with a can of gasoline, I would have rushed to comply.

In the early 1950s, as a new broadcast engineer, I had great respect for the FCC Field Officers; skilled, devoted engineers, striving to keep our industry first class.

It wasn't until 1959 that my faith in the Federal Government waned. That year I participated in a hearing before an FCC examiner in Washington. There I witnessed the incompetence, the bias, the ignorance of the industry they regulated, the arbitrary nature of decisions, by FCC Washington personnel.

ABC News icon Sam Donaldson recently expressed his irritation with people saying they "wanted to take our country back." Sam doesn't understand what is meant by "our country". He is probably too young to remember when government could be trusted. When, if a candidate was elected to office, you had full confidence in that official, whether you voted for or against them in the election.

Donaldson said "It's not your country any longer", and he was right.

At this point, what difference does it make?

To those of us old people who remember when "our country" stood for truth, honesty, justice, it makes a great deal of difference and we are still determined to take our country back.