“Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it.” — George R.R. Martin, “A Game of Thrones.”

This quotation seems especially relevant today as we look at politics as usual in our nation’s capital. There are three major hard truths that our current government has been denying with great vigor: The Mueller Russia-U.S. Presidential election connection investigation, the war in Afghanistan, and the growing national deficit.

Attacks on the Mueller investigation: There is a quotation that comes to mind from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” — “Me thinks thou dost protest too much.” Why has the Republican House committee issued a previously classified document to the media on the Russian meddling investigation?

The obvious and sometimes stated goal is to discredit the Mueller investigation before Mueller has a chance to reveal what his commission has found. The FBI and the Justice Department both requested that the memo not be published, and they were ignored. This information has become politicized. That’s where the Shakespeare quote seems to ring true.

If the Trump administration has nothing to hide, why should it and the Republicans attempt to discredit Mueller, who is a fellow Republican, and one noted for his honesty and integrity? The only answer that makes any sense is that there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. The greater the attempt to cover up or discredit the investigation, the more likely there was collusion. The techniques used to discredit Mueller are the same techniques used by the Koch brothers and their allies mentioned in a previous article about “Dark Money”.

The war in Afghanistan: We are losing, according to a “Christian Science Monitor” article by staff writer Scott Peterson entitled, “Afghanistan by the Numbers: Inside the Fight Over Facts.” Not only are we losing as the Taliban controls more and more territory—70% of the country—and carries out bigger and bigger bombings and killings in Kabul, but the real state of the conflict has been withheld from the American public, where the information was once shared. Conditions have degenerated so much that the military no longer drives the few miles from the Kabul airport to the city. They have to fly in helicopters to avoid attacks.

Afghan troop strength and casualty numbers, though unclassified, are not being published for the American public.” “Of course, it is a cover up”, states a quote from the article. And another damning quotation:

“Ever since Trump took power, there is a real obsession with winning, and the war in Afghanistan has moved beyond that,” says the official, adding that a military solution is “a fantasy.”

The enemy knows the real state of the war. The Afghan government also understands. The only ones who are being kept in the dark are the American public.

The growing national deficit: You probably missed it, but the Treasury Department is preparing to borrow $1 trillion for this upcoming fiscal year, up from $519 billion last year, due in large part to the recent Republican tax cut. This information was ignored during President Trump’s State of the Union address.

How can the U.S. government spend more money on the military, infrastructure, Trump’s stated goals, and at the same time cut taxes? This means increasing the deficit, creating uncertainty, setting the stage for rising inflation, and setting the stage for a 2019 recession, according to an analysis by Heather Long in a February 3, 2017 article in The Washington Post. These factors were partially the cause of the precipitous recent decline of the stock market.

The quote, “Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it” seems to be what the current government in Washington is doing in at least three areas: the Russian election interference investigation, the Afghan War, and the looming $1 trillion increase in the national deficit for fiscal year 2018. On these major issues the nation is being kept in the dark. Time and reality will force us all to face the hard truths that we are stumbling blindly toward.