Watching a troupe of politicians sitting in line side by side behind an ornate wooden dais holding a hearing reminded me of watching an old play: Lips moved, the words politicians said boiled down to getting re-elected.

Trump picked Hegseth, Kennedy, Patel, Bondi – no Republican dared cross Trump, risk a primary with Trump on the other side; at the same time on the other side of the aisle no Democrat dared to vote for a Trump nominee – that’d make Democrat voters unhappy.

Here’s what no one on either side said a word about during Pete Hegseth’s hearing.

Not long ago the head of NATO warned: We’re not ready for threats we’re facing, before it’s too late we need to change our ways; a think tank described our defense strategy as ‘insolvent’ – our military’s only strong enough to fight one war at a time but we now have two wars on our hands and with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea marching arm-in-arm against us may end up with four.

You’d think a serious Senator would ask Pete Hegseth how he’d deal with those threats – but no one did on either side. Democrats grilled Hegseth about the role of LGBTQ in the military; making Trump happy Republicans purred lauding Hegseth.

In days gone by – a serious nation – we faced threats head-on. Those times are past. But in the end turning a blind eye to threats always brings a day of reckoning.

*****

Telling stories, in his memoir Carter Wrenn follows The Trail of the Serpent twisting and turning through politics from Reagan to Trump. Order his book from Amazon.