And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?
Jesus in Matthew 7:3
Clean your finger before you point at my spots.
Benjamin Franklin
We ought to see far enough into a hypocrite to see even his sincerity.
G. K. Chesterton
Within the last weeks I heard from a guy for whom I have the greatest respect. And his input leaves me a little perplexed. Let me explain. The input was a broadcast email that suggested that the Democratic Party and anyone in it should have no standing in criticizing what is going on in the current administration. The email pointed to various past accusations against the Clintons, former President Obama and other Democrats. The point was that since people in the Democratic Party are so very flawed and have committed so many wrongs that for them to accuse anyone of anything is hypocritical.
I am not sure that everything that was listed was fact-checked and proven. But I can certainly remember at least one occasion where President Clinton looked me in the eye and said with a straight face – “I did not have sex with that woman.” We all know how THAT turned out. So, there is at least some truth in the accusations that at least some of the Democrats are hypocrites. But are any Republicans ever hypocritical? I saw a posting today in which then-candidate Trump was talking about how President Obama should be dealing with Iran and criticizing the very things that he is presently doing – kind of hypocritical. I have whined before about the criticisms that then-candidate Trump had about the national debt, which contrary to what he said he could do, HE in turn has driven even higher, MUCH higher. I have noted before that neither political party seems to blanch at hypocrisy these days. There is so much mudslinging and subterfuge going back and forth that it is hard to know WHAT the truth is. The question arises, does the fact that an accuser is a hypocrite automatically make their accusation false?
It is so easy to dislike a hypocrite. Hypocrisy seems so patently dishonest and smug and it violates the sense of fairness that nearly all of us have. It seems like the worst form of dishonesty. But truthfully, I am certain that there have been times in my life that I, the perfect author of this posting, have been a hypocrite. But if I have been dishonest once, does that mean that everything I say is false? It might make things that I say SUSPECT, but in some cases my statements could still be true. So unfortunately, I have come to agree with Chesterton: I will listen to what anyone says, even if I believe that they are being hypocritical as they say it, BECAUSE there may be truth in what they say. And by the way this cuts both ways for me. So, for example if there is some implication that the President is enriching himself because of his position as president, especially from foreign dollars coming into the US – the emoluments cases, I say let’s check that out and act on what is found. And if there was an inappropriate enrichment of the Clintons because of foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation, I say let’s check THAT out and take it to them if there were violations of the law. You will note that my preface to all of this was the word UNFORTUNATELY. It IS unfortunate that our political discourse has descended to the level that it presently is on, but given the torrent of accusations and counter accusations, what else can we do?