The Idiocracy of Hypocrisy
It’s one thing to have known – as most of us always have – that the GOP is the party of bigots, homophobes, xenophobes and hypocrites. It is quite another to see them publicly embracing those things instead of persisting in their usual, long-standing practice of denying them.
To give credit where it’s due, Donald Trump has done the nation a service in exposing what Republicans are and always have been. And there is something particularly satisfying about watching people who have invariably misled their fellow citizens being taken in by a flim-flam man who holds their alleged ideals in such obvious contempt.
Aside from those who have been living under a rock for the past few decades, no one was shocked by Trump’s recently-released remarks. He has never made any pretense of being other than who and what he is. He has demonstrated his vulgarity, his disdain for his fellow citizens, and his total lack of morals without hesitation. His business dealings, his refusal to pay for services rendered by honest businessmen, his squandering of investors’ money while lining his own pockets, his many lawsuits, his bankruptcies were all well known. And yet the Republicans continue to react with shock-and-awe at every revelation, as though it were late-breaking news.
Over the past few months, the GOP has abandoned every principle it once touted as the core of their being, every holier-than-thou position it once claimed as its sole domain, every Christian value they once purported to protect. The Word of God they once pronounced as sacrosanct has been brushed aside to make way for words that are now dismissed as innocuous “locker room talk”.
Sad to say – but in no way surprising – the “good Christian leaders” of the Republican party have wasted no time in getting on board. They have extolled Trump’s vices as virtues, they have likened him to Biblical heroes, they have called him the Chosen of God. They have turned their backs on everything they once professed to believe; they have led their flocks to the slaughterhouse like Judas Goats, anxious to partake of a full meal and a good night’s sleep in exchange for their betrayal once the blood-letting is complete.
It has all been a revelation, a glimpse into the very soul of the Republican party, that part of itself that its adherents have so strenuously tried to hide, and have so vehemently denied.
One wonders where the GOP goes from here. When will the Republican party ever again be able to lay claim to being defenders of the Constitution, after nominating a candidate who clearly doesn’t understand its concept, nor its principles? When will they again tout themselves as the party of family values, after defending a man who disrespects all women with the most vulgar language and behaviour – including his own daughter? When will they again attempt to hold themselves out as the party of all Americans, after supporting a nominee who has consistently insulted, demeaned, and ridiculed Muslims, minorities, veterans, immigrants, and the disabled?
The truth is that those who are proud of their bigotry and hatred will never forgive the Republican party for vacillating in their support of their hero, and traditional Republicans will never forgive their party for nominating a sure-fire loser like Trump in the first place.
The Republicans have become a shining example of the Idiocracy of Hypocrisy. They now openly defend everything they once deemed indefensible. They characterize a buffoon who knows nothing about the responsibilities of the presidency as a refreshing outsider who will cure the country’s woes. They laud the kind of rhetoric they once loudly denounced; they applaud the language they once vehemently condemned.
The GOP have always shown themselves to be slow on the uptake, and I don’t think they yet appreciate the damage done: the damage to our country by lowering a presidential election to the level of a badly-scripted circus; the damage to our nation as we witness an immoral, lying, clueless idiot being promoted as a suitable candidate for the most powerful position on the planet. And most importantly to the always self-serving Republicans, there is the damage done to a political "brand" that allowed a well-known grifter to expose its own hucksterism.
The election, for all intents and purposes, is over – and has been from the beginning of this campaign cycle. What is not over is the spectacle of Republicans having abandoned everything they once pretended to stand for, everything they once feigned to exemplify, everything they once claimed to adhere to as being righteous and morally just.
This is Donald Trump’s legacy – the outing of the GOP as the very people they have always pretended to abhor. The truth is out, and it won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
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GREAT responses to a wonderful posting by OUR own "bearer of the standard!"
