The Alternate Nation.

       Tom Friedman has an important editorial in the New York Times today. Here's a small excerpt "I fear we're seeing the end of truth- that we can't agree any more on basic facts. And we're becoming Sunnis and Shiites- we call them "Democrats" and Republicans," but the sectarianism that has destroyed nation-states in the Middle East is now infecting us."
       I hadn't heard it said quite like that before and I hadn't thought of our problems quite like that before, but I think Friedman is right. We're falling apart and it's because of lies, fake truths and alternative facts. There really is no such honest thing as alternative facts. A fact is a fact, or should be. A lie is not a replacement for a fact. It's an affront to a fact, an attack on that fact.
       And when you get a substantial number of the electorate believing in those lies and alternative facts, even a minority of the electorate, it throws the whole American experiment out the window. And the thing is, it's not going to get better until or unless we see an end to the lies. Lies that are officially spread from the top of the hierarchy of our political system.
       The longer it lasts, the more voters that believe in these alternative facts and lies, the more difficult it will be to set America back on an even keel. Once someone believes the lies, the harder it is to convince them they're wrong. Too many people are closed to the idea that the "other side' has anything worthwhile to say or hear.
       To bad because the truth is really the truth and real facts are real. And the alternative to truth and facts just might be the downfall of a great nation. I sure hope the alternative won't be too ugly. But it certainly looks like it will be.