Hypocrisy
The main issue this campaign season is hypocrisy, whether you like it or not. You might have hoped it was the war in Iraq, or the budget deficit or something but no, it had to be hypocrisy. It's not very surprising. Iraq is a huge complicated issue, with no good solutions, and getting worse all the time. Anybody who tries to talk about Iraq in more than the stupidest terms opens himself up to all kinds of attacks. The same is true of terrorism, abortion, taxes, and anything that might matter.
Hypocrisy is a really easy charge to bring. Here's how to do it: Go through a politician's record, and find an instance where he said X. Then look for something he did that seems to contradict X. Then all you need is the money for political ads, and you're done. You can do 5 months of campaigning in 5 minutes. And nobody can fault you. After all, your opponent really did betray his principles. It's all there in black and white.
This is not an uplifting way to run a campaign. The most obvious shortcoming is that it works against everyone. Politicians are busy people. They have to go to lots of events and make lots of speeches, and speak off-the-cuff all the time. And because it is a politician's job to agree with 50% of the electorate, a lot of weird political positions are going to get jumbled together. If a politician supports the war in Iraq, and at the same time supports the government of Saudi Arabia, some people will want to say he's a hypocrite. "You can't oppose dictators in one place and prop them up elsewhere," they'll say.
Well, yes you can. Politicians are under no obligation to be intellectually consistant. They are mouthpieces of their party, and you can't get 50 million people to adopt one set of principles. If the Republican base wants war with Iraq and also cozy relations with the Saudis, who is Sen. Jack Nobody (R-Nowhere) to defy them? At the same time, Rep. Jane Somebody (D-Big City) has to vote for legal abortion and go to Catholic church, no matter how many contortions that requires. What else can they do? Bucking your party works for guys like Ron Paul or Joe Lieberman, but the country can only stand so many mavericks.
The hypocrisy party is at its worst during sex scandals, and the Foley scandal is no different. Just like "it's not the sex, it's the lying" of the 1990's, all the furor this time is about how a gay pederast like Foley could belong to the Republican party. Fundamentalists and liberals alike are upset that Republicans claim to be the party of God, but are actually sexually harassing pages.
This misses the point entirely. Would the religious conservatives be relieved if Foley had run, and won, on a platform of lewd instant messages? If you're bothered by his social conservatism, would you be pleased to find out that Foley was pure and innocent all along, while the real harassing was done by Rep. John Libertine (D-CA)? The consequences would be the same, but the addition of hypocrisy seems to make it extra sour for some people.
You can't trust politicians, because they're just not like you and me. We are free agents, but they are, professionally at least, just creatures of their constituents. So go ahead. Demand that politicians stop being mealy-mouthed, stop disguising their true natures, and act like they say. Either these political saints will go down to hilarious defeats, or we'll start electing morons who really do believe that Iraq had WMDs. What is it you really want here?
Hypocrisy is a really easy charge to bring. Here's how to do it: Go through a politician's record, and find an instance where he said X. Then look for something he did that seems to contradict X. Then all you need is the money for political ads, and you're done. You can do 5 months of campaigning in 5 minutes. And nobody can fault you. After all, your opponent really did betray his principles. It's all there in black and white.
This is not an uplifting way to run a campaign. The most obvious shortcoming is that it works against everyone. Politicians are busy people. They have to go to lots of events and make lots of speeches, and speak off-the-cuff all the time. And because it is a politician's job to agree with 50% of the electorate, a lot of weird political positions are going to get jumbled together. If a politician supports the war in Iraq, and at the same time supports the government of Saudi Arabia, some people will want to say he's a hypocrite. "You can't oppose dictators in one place and prop them up elsewhere," they'll say.
Well, yes you can. Politicians are under no obligation to be intellectually consistant. They are mouthpieces of their party, and you can't get 50 million people to adopt one set of principles. If the Republican base wants war with Iraq and also cozy relations with the Saudis, who is Sen. Jack Nobody (R-Nowhere) to defy them? At the same time, Rep. Jane Somebody (D-Big City) has to vote for legal abortion and go to Catholic church, no matter how many contortions that requires. What else can they do? Bucking your party works for guys like Ron Paul or Joe Lieberman, but the country can only stand so many mavericks.
The hypocrisy party is at its worst during sex scandals, and the Foley scandal is no different. Just like "it's not the sex, it's the lying" of the 1990's, all the furor this time is about how a gay pederast like Foley could belong to the Republican party. Fundamentalists and liberals alike are upset that Republicans claim to be the party of God, but are actually sexually harassing pages.
This misses the point entirely. Would the religious conservatives be relieved if Foley had run, and won, on a platform of lewd instant messages? If you're bothered by his social conservatism, would you be pleased to find out that Foley was pure and innocent all along, while the real harassing was done by Rep. John Libertine (D-CA)? The consequences would be the same, but the addition of hypocrisy seems to make it extra sour for some people.
You can't trust politicians, because they're just not like you and me. We are free agents, but they are, professionally at least, just creatures of their constituents. So go ahead. Demand that politicians stop being mealy-mouthed, stop disguising their true natures, and act like they say. Either these political saints will go down to hilarious defeats, or we'll start electing morons who really do believe that Iraq had WMDs. What is it you really want here?
posted by apk01004 at 12:43 PM
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