In 2018, University of Cambridge professor David Runciman wrote in his book, “It is actually more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere. We should accept hypocrisy as a fact of politics — the most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy.”
My gosh if that isn’t one of the truest things ever written.
Read it again so it sinks in:
“The most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy.”
If this were church and if I were the vocal-in-church type (it isn’t and I’m not), I’d give Runciman a loud amen.
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Politics and hypocrisy make strange bedfellows. I’ve maintained for most of my adult life that one simply cannot be politically-minded and not be a hypocrite. That includes me, you, and every other political observer.
Take, for instance, conservatives. For as long as there has been such a thing as the American conservative movement, the right has clamored for smaller government. It is a cornerstone of the Republican Party.
As President Ronald Reagan, perhaps the closest anyone has ever come to canonization by the GOP, once said: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
And, another Reaganism: “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”
Ask any Republican politician about their platform and they’re likely to include “limited government” somewhere in their response.
Yet, even as we speak, Republicans through the United States are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in a potential landmark case that could overturn Roe v. Wade.
Obviously a SCOTUS decision striking down Roe v. Wade is unlikely, even given the court’s conservative majority. But there’s a clear trend of states using laws to limit access to abortions. Texas stepped forth boldly. Idaho mimicked Texas earlier this year with a law banning abortions after six weeks, and Oklahoma has just passed a total abortion ban.
Nothing says “small government” like passing laws to limit freedom, amiright?
But I’m not just picking on conservatives, of which I am one. Liberals are just as guilty.
There probably isn’t a Democrat in these United States who hasn’t claimed that Donald Trump was engaging in conduct unbecoming of a president, conduct harmful to democracy itself, when he claimed that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.
Those same Democrats conveniently forgot that Hillary Clinton cried foul when she was beaten by none other than Trump just four years earlier. In fact, Democrats in Congress spent spent years — and millions of dollars — in an attempt (a fruitless attempt, we might add) to build a case that Russians illegally influenced the 2016 presidential election.
None of the left-leaning pundits (or the left-leaning media outlets like The Washington Post or CNN) who have self-righteously condemned Trump and rushed to label his stolen election claims as “lies” and “falsehoods” had much to say when Clinton told a crowd in Inglewood, Calif. a couple of years ago, “You can be the nominee, you can even run the best campaign, and you can have the election stolen from you.”
Imagine the hand-wringing from the left if Trump said, “You can run the best campaign and still have the election stolen from you.” Actually, we don’t have to imagine it, because we’ve seen it. Yet, when the shoe was on the other foot, nary a peep.
And ‘round and ‘round we go.
Do you want to see hypocrisy in politics? Ask yourself: Why were the BLM riots in Minneapolis, Portland and elsewhere “mostly peaceful protests,” while the MAGA insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building was a full-blown “riot”? You couldn’t watch the news coverage from the aforementioned chief offender (that’s you, CNN) with a straight face. The same network so carefully avoided using the “R” word to describe the “protests” as buildings burned tossed it around quite freely in the aftermath of Jan. 6.
Do you want to see hypocrisy in politics? Why is it not okay for protestors to block streets when they’re supporting Black Lives Matter, but it is okay for truckers to block streets when they’re protesting covid restrictions? Conservatives who were so quick to condemn the BLM street-blockers gave full-throated endorsements to the truckers who were inspired by the protests that played out in Canada. But at the end of the day, blocking a street is blocking a street, regardless of the cause … isn’t it?
If you want to see hypocrisy in politics, see the pro-choice crowd who screech “My body, my choice!” call for mandated covid vaccines.
If you want to see hypocrisy in politics, see the supposedly pro-business party — the Republicans — rush to pass laws in state houses across the country that prohibit companies from mandating their employees be vaccinated, or wear masks, or take other covid safeguards.
You want hypocrisy? How about Mitch McConnell blocking Barack Obama’s 11th hour Supreme Court nomination while defending his “duty” to push through Donald Trump’s nominee with a pious excuse about the “will of the voters” (whatever that was supposed to mean).
You want hypocrisy? How about Chuck Schumer and the Democrats screeching about Republicans’ hard-line questioning of SCOTUS pick Ketanji Brown Jackson after the circus Democrats subjected us to during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh.
The point, I suppose, is simply this: Neither Republicans or Democrats have a moral high road to claim when it comes to hypocrisy in politics. At the end of the day, both sides — all of us — are going to pick a hill to die on, based on whatever political ideologies we hold nearest to our heart.
By the way: I firmly believe that limited government is the best government … and I support abortion restrictions.