aNewDomain commentary
— It’s an argument you wouldn’t accept from an eight-year-old: Billy’s mom lets him color on the walls!
This is the argument to hypocrisy.
Example: I think we should all be vegetarians but I eat chicken and fish because I don’t want to die.
Am I wrong that meat production is environmentally damaging and ethically hard to justify?
And what makes me wrong: contrary evidence or the fish scales on my lips?
We don’t have the infrastructure for vegetarianism to be realistic for me right now. If we did, I’d make this ethical choice. As we do not, I agitate for it, quietly and unobstrusively. But even if I did eat a big, juicy steak and really enjoyed it, would that make me wrong – or only a hypocrite?
There’s a second danger in this argument – distraction. Billy’s mom clearly does not let him color on the walls. But the moment we focus on this little white lie, well, we’ve stopped focusing on the problem at hand: Our kid just colored all over the walls. The behavior requires immediate attention.
Clear-thinking Trump supporters should think about the argument to hypocrisy not just for Hillary Clinton, but for their man, too.
Even the most loyal among Trump fans usually will agree that Trump bragged about groping women, dodged his taxes, insulted foreign leaders, condoned the hacking of emails of our duly elected officials, praised Russian president Vladimir Putin, threatened to use nuclear weapons,and lies and denies all the time, with ease.
They are slower to admit his hypocrisy, though.
Think about it.
When Trump sexually harassed Alicia Machado in public, his proxies were quick to point the finger at Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual misconduct. Indeed nearly every appearance by a Trump supporter results in a quick change of subject to the alleged bad behaviors of Hillary Clinton and her so-called “evilness.”
Of course that isn’t the point, and the reason they never attempt to defend Trump’s behavior because it is indefensible. Talking about Trump is a losing strategy. In a protest vote movement, keep attention on who we are protesting – that’s the rule.
But of course Bill Clinton didn’t talk about forcing himself on women who would allow it because of his wealth. And if he did, we’re at worse hypocrites for hold Trump to a higher standard – not wrong.
Democrats make the same logical error when it comes to Hillary Clinton’s emails. Facing claims that she deleted 30,000 emails under subpoena, they point to how many emails the Bush administration lost.
Nice allegation. But does it make Clinton an innocent? We’re at best hypocrites for demanding accountability – not wrong.
For aNewDomain, I’m Jason Dias.
