Im starting to think the defining characteristic of the US right-wing is their need to hurt women and children.

Also a fair point.

Eh, they're standard practice for a fair number of sensitive gov positions. And mostly it's an excuse to get you into a room with an experienced questioner. The polygraph machine is mostly there to psych people out.

(CIA excepted. They're... very weird over there.)

Something the US needs to accept too is that without a large-scale correction imposing consequences on a large number of people, the crisis of governance here will continue indefinitely