Blatant And Shameless, Parts 1 & 2
I know that there’s nothing new in pointing out that there’s hypocrisy in politics. I don’t think I will startle readers with this profound insight.
However, the DEGREE of hypocrisy in contemporary American politics, being egged on by a partisan and rather dim press corps, is reaching new, unprecedented heights. It’s galling to see just how blatant and shameless the hypocrisy has become. Do they really think that we are THAT stupid? Or, do they assume the American people have an average memory span of under two weeks? Or both?
World class hypocrisy was on display last week, when Congressional minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, indignantly complained that the Democrats were not involved in the Obama Care replacement legislation and didn’t have enough time to study it. On June 20 of 2012, it was this same Nancy Pelosi, at the National Association of Counties, who famously proclaimed that America should pass the Affordable Care Act and then “see what’s in it”!
When, in April of this year, the Democrats howled at the Republican use of the “nuclear option” (using a simple majority to override a Democratic filibuster) to confirm Justice Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, they did NOT mention that the legislation that enabled that tactic was ENACTED by Harry Reid and the Democrat majority in the Senate on November 21, 2013!
Following the Arlington Virginia shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and four others by left wing activist James Hodgkinson, the LLPD (liberal leftist progressive Democrats) issued fervent calls To DEPOLITICIZE the incident. Of course the LLPD wanted no MENTION of the leftist ideology from which the attack sprung. NOT mentioned by the LLPD was the fact that for over four months of the Trump Presidency they sought to POLITICIZE absolutely EVERYTHING that President Trump and his administration had done, including, Mr. Trump singing along with the National Anthem!
Prior to the recent special congressional election in Georgia’s Sixth District, LLPD commentators and writers hyped the election as the first major test of the popularity of President Trump’s unfolding agenda. They were SO convinced that the contest would show a dramatic repudiation of the Trump program, that many of the LLPD in print and on the screen referred to the upcoming election as a watershed. When the massively subsidized Democrat candidate (to the tune of 30 MILLION DOLLARS) lost, the pundits IMMEDIATELY turned around and said that it was “no big deal”, that “no Democrat could win in that district”, etc. But that WASN’T what they said just days earlier.
When the venerable Hillary Clinton lost the election, a certain Mr. James Comey was immediately blamed. The LLPD contingent roundly castigated Mr. Comey as inept. There were calls for his dismissal. On Oct 30, 2016, Senator Harry Reid wrote a formal letter to Comey: “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.” On Oct. 31, 2016: Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, echoed concerns similar to Reid’s and called for Comey to resign his FBI post. Cohen reiterated that call in a Nov. 3 opinion column published in The Hill. Nov. 2, 2016: Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, told Bloomberg News that: “I do not have confidence in him any longer.” That same day, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, shared similar feelings with CNN and suggested: “Maybe he’s not in the right job.” On January 13, 2017, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, put it more bluntly: “The FBI director has no credibility”. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. Interested readers should look up an excellent article by Louis Gomez in the San Diego Union-Tribune, May 10, 2017 with DOZENS of examples. ALL of these hypocrites IMMEDIATELY did an “about face” when Comey was fired by President Trump. Suddenly, he was the best thing since sliced bread.
In the wake of Hillary Clinton’s humiliating defeat, the LLPD was DESPERATE to conjure SOMETHING by which they could attack our President. Hence the “Trump/Russia Collusion” narrative. During it’s inception the whole THRUST of the allegation was that Mr. Trump willfully COLLUDED with Vladimir Putin to “influence” the election. However, after six months of intense investigation by several agencies, when no evidence of wrong doing by Mr. Trump could be found, the LLPD propagandists had considerable “egg on their face.” So, NOW the emphasis shifted to the Russians, or obstruction of justice, or intimidation, or basically ANYTHING, as grounds to justify the colossally wrong headed investigation that had NO. merit from the get go.
On Memorial Day, the LLPD minions
took to Twitter and the internet to criticize Mr. Trump for SINGING ALONG WITH THE NATIONAL ANTHEM. Yes, they really did so. They claimed that singing along somehow disrespected the song. (The Anthem, by the way, is SUPPOSED to be sung along to. This is not often done because it is a very difficult song to sing, but it’s proper to do so). The LLPD critics of Mr. Trump who claimed to be “offended” by Trump’s singing, should be reminded that they had NO PROBLEM with malcontent Colin Kapernick’s refusal to even STAND for the Anthem prior to football games.
Following the February, 2016 death of Justice Anton Scalia, both House and Senate Democrats went CRAZY when Republicans put off hearings on Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland, effectively putting off the process until the next administration, which the Republicans were hoping would be in their corner. Now, I agree that putting off the appointment could be seen as reprehensible by some of those on the opposite side of the fence. But the LLPD failed to make clear, however, that the same Democrats that were complaining the loudest (both Schumer and Biden), actually made forceful speeches ADVOCATING a similar delay in 1992. In that year a Democratic Senate blocked the nomination of John G. Roberts (who became a nominee again in 2005 by George W. Bush, was appointed, and is now the Chief Justice) to the Supreme Court by George H. W. Bush. The seat was left vacant until President Bill Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993. So the Democrats were complaining that the Republicans were doing to Merrick Garland, EXACTLY WHAT THEY HAD DONE TO JOHN G. ROBERTS in 1992. Another case of the “pot calling the kettle black.”
I’ll end with another stunning example of blatant hypocrisy. Toward the end of the 2016 Presidential Campaign, when Candidate Trump was asked if he would be prepared to challenge the election result if he thought there was evidence of voter fraud. Mr. Trump left all of his options open when he replied that “I’ll keep you in suspense.” With that the LLPD functionaries went BALLISTIC. “This was very DANGEROUS!” “It would THREATEN OUR DEMOCRACY.” “It will delegitimize our government.” etc. All of these grave warnings were IMMEDIATELY ignored, however, when the election results WERE challenged, not by Mr. Trump of course, but by none other than Hillary Clinton (recall that on November 28, 2016, Hillary joined Jill Stein’s suit challenging the election result and demanding a recount). Suddenly, what had been termed “dangerous to democracy” was now “democracy’s checks and balances.”
Imagine that!