The Hypocrisy of It All

Okay, I understand that you wanted to "drain the swamp" because your life sucks and you have not seen a change in your situation in decades.  You and your neighbors are falling behind everyone around you and for some reason you blame Washington as the source of your problems.  I think that your state and local officials are trying to cover for themselves and are telling you Washington is the source of your problems.   I understand, really I do. In my job of the last 23 years, I saw the refugees from a failed economic system.  You have to see that the Blue States of America are advancing while the Red States are falling further and further behind.  My problem is the hypocrisy of the whole thing.  Don't pretend to want change and pin your hopes on a rookie with a poor track record as a business person who has represented the rich his entire life.  My issue focuses on two things that left me totally disgusted with the state of the United States in 2016:

1.  the supposedly pious religious fundamentalists who supported this hate-filled individual.  
2. and the families who supposedly "support our troops" with their bumper stickers and flags, but then voted for a guy who avoided the draft. 

You evangelicals have not followed your faith since the 1976 Presidential election.  You have put abortion over every other issue that has an impact on your life and your faith. 

• In 1980, you selected a guy who had divorced with no strong love of religion over a fellow evangelical Christian in the Presidential race. He hated the communists unless they were opposing the socialists.  
• In 1984, you again selected the man who had really devastated the family with massive budget cuts especially to housing and social programs over an honorable guy.  You really sacrificed care for children after they are born because you did not like a female as Vice President? Ronald Reagan, the father of family homelessness, who sold arms to a genocidal, terrorist forces in Central America was your choice.  
• In 1988, the Christian Right went for a nice guy who opposed abortion over the guy who held a position against the death penalty as his religion commanded.  Michael Dukakis said he would not execute the guy who raped his wife, and so he was soft and the hard right went for a CIA chief with no real religious convictions. 
• Then 1992 was a real tough election for evangelicals.  There really wasn't a candidate running for the religious vote.  You had a choice between a guy who did nothing to help conservatives vs a guy who reportedly violated the adultery Commandment and then the wild card in Ross Perot.  
• In 1996 there was a similar problem with an impeached adulterer vs. a non religious candidate who stuck to the party line on abortion.  Besides abortion there was nothing really to excite evangelicals with Bob Dole.  So, the far right spent most of the 1990s in the desert looking for a leader.
• For 2000, the hypocrisy of the fundamentalist Christians kicked in supporting a Republican man of faith who as governor had regularly violated the "Thou shalt not kill" Commandment by regularly executing people including a woman who had repented.  This over a guy who had lots of experience who was deeply religious and also had a deeply held Biblical belief that God was the title holder to the world and we are just here to be its caretaker.  "Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land,and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. 34 Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell, for I, the Lord, dwell among the Israelites.’” Numbers 33:35. Bush marketed himself well as a "compassionate conservative," but people had to see that this was just another form of spin over substance.
• In 2004, the Sharia Christians took down a religious man, John Kerry, and instead supported the guy who had engaged in a voluntary war.  John Kerry was even persecuted within his religion with some priests refusing to give him the sacraments because of his voting record.  He was passionate about his faith, but felt that abortion was a private decision and government should not be involved.  He was far more honorable to his faith when compared to the other candidate especially with regard to putting his faith into his legislative record.  He supported expanding health care, reducing childhood poverty and welcoming the stranger as his faith taught him.  
  
• 2008 and 2012 were tough on the right wing extremists in our society with a guy who followed a minister who said, "Damn the United States" and other extreme things from the podium. Rev. Wright regularly called attention to how African Americans were mistreated in our society and I guess that was a step too far for evangelicals.  Barack Obama was married once unlike his 2008 opponent.  He was not a member of a strange branch of Christianity that few evangelicals would even recognize like his 2012 opponent.  For the most part, religious conservatives largely waited for a better day in 2008 and 2012 and were not enthusiastic for either candidate.  They were blinded by the first African American, even though Obama was probably closer to their values then any President since Jimmy Carter.  
• Then the extreme hypocrisy train left the station in 2016, when the prosperity doctrine took full control of the United States.  A man who regularly cheated on his wives, had no morality outside of greed, and coveted anything and everything beat an honorable woman who had to publicly endured her husband cheating on her.  She was the victim and he was a serial sexual harasser.  He never was acquainted with the concept of all men being created equal or all people being created in the image of God.  To Donald Trump people are to be used for your own good and their only value is how they can help the Trump family enrich themselves.  He is the subject of so many parables about what not to be like including the Rich Fool in Luke 12: 13.  He obviously never paid attention in church with his Romans two in front of a religious audience, and yet the Christian Jihadists still voted for this devil with the flaming hair.  

The same problems existed with the suburban "I support the military" voters as did with the religious extremists.  For some reason, the military families continue to support candidates who exploit the military and abuse those families.  I cannot understand why a family that supports the military would ever support a Republican again after the party of the rich campaigned and most likely won the 1968 election by claiming to end the Vietnam war and then secretly expanded into two other countries.  Then a Republican went to war by choice in Iraq.  There was no real threat to the United States and GWB went to Iraq to correct the perceived mistakes of his father's administration.  John McCain was a war hero who deserved the praise of those military families, but so was John Kerry.  He told the truth about Vietnam which most Republicans felt was an assault on the President.  Bob Dole was a war hero who got the support of the military families, but Michael Dukakis served during the Korean conflict and got no respect from those who supported the military. It is this double standard that I find revolting.  Ronald Reagan played a soldier and sold war bonds during his "service" and he ran against two veterans who both served honorably.  Reagan was viewed as the military friendly candidate because he played a soldier in the movies?  Mondale and Carter both served during wars with Carter spending 10 years in the Navy and then another 8 years in the Naval Reserve.

Again, the 2016 election was the ultimate in hypocrisy.  There should have been protests in the streets by families of military veterans against Donald Trump. He certainly likes Generals, but was never interested in having any of his family serve.  They should have never allowed this man to win the Republican nomination against a Judge Advocate General and a man who served in the Military Intelligence office in the early 1970s.  Isn't it strange how the Republicans champion their support for the military but do not serve in the all-voluntary military?  Those Republicans who do become President then abuse that military support with quixotic use of the Army.  I hate hypocrisy and do not understand how people tolerate hypocrisy for so long.  Could hypocrisy be the foundation of the Republican party?

by Brian Davis