Most Hypocritical Election In American History?
The 2016 presidential election. Words cannot even begin to describe this wild rodeo of an election. Trump has gained an incredible amount of momentum in these last few weeks, especially this week due to the indictment of his opponent Hillary Clinton, after losing so much of it when a tape was released of Trump saying in his words, ‘some very not nice things about women.’ This Indictment has made the hypocrisy meter for this year’s election nearly explode. Even before this immense nuclear bombshell was dropped on the Clinton campaign, there was still plenty of flip flops on each side.
Secretary Clinton has condemned Trumps treatment of women while Mr. Trump does the same to the former secretary of state. While Clinton preaches that Trump has sexually harassed several women in the past few years, Trump often speaks about how Clinton has intimidated multiple supposed victims of her husband, Bill. The facts are both of these claims are only alleged, but there are other real claims the candidates are making such as the Clintons receiving money from foreign countries that treat women as second class citizens. Donald Trump has also been quoted numerous times in the past showing his disrespect for women. Clinton also praises equal pay for women yet men are paid more than women within her own foundation. When you take into account all these incidents, it is complete blasphemy for either candidate to suggest that either candidate is exactly a champion of women’s rights.
The next area of claiming one thing but doing another involves the senate’s selection of a supreme court judge. After justice Antonin Scalia passed away in February. The senate which is held in majority buy Republicans decided to “let the people decide” the next supreme court nominees political alliance through the ballot box for the 2016 election. That is, until it looked like Trump was going to lose. Once the people no longer wanted a republican president, congress came to the decision that it was best to leave the supreme court vacant for the next four years. So much for letting the people decide. In the event of a Trump victory, the Republicans in congress may once again change their minds about the issue. In the end, congress will only let the people decide if the people agree with them.
The most hippocratic event by far in this election was James Comey’s new decision to reopen the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton. After Secretary Clinton’s controversial acquittal in July, Republicans and their nominee, Donald Trump, have blasted FBI Director, James Comey, while on the other end of the spectrum, the Democrats and their nominee, Hillary Clinton have praised Comey. Comey had decided in a very unusual case that Clinton was extremely careless, but it could not be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that her negligence was intentional. Many Republicans have called Director Comey a political hack, and have accused him of deciding not to indict Clinton because she is above the law. Democrats have looked to Comey as a nonpartisan, completely unbiased decision maker, for not giving into the pressure from conservatives to indict Secretary Clinton.
Only a week ago, FBI Director Comey wrote the letter to congress that has left the country absolutely stunned, and has left the Clinton campaign in full panic mode. Comey decided to reopen the case after he had found multiple emails that could have significance in Clinton’s former case. In the eyes of the Democrats, Comey in one day went from the most honest, non-politically motivated candidate, to an FBI Director using his power to rig the election. Republicans have also shifted their views on Comey, who has gone from the politically motivated democratic devotee, to the impartial, politically neutral decision maker. The most insane part of all this is both sides are accusing each other of hypocrisy without even acknowledging their own.
Many people see the big picture here and understand the hypocrisy emanating from both ends of the political spectrum and are disgusted by it. What this tells us is the this hypocrisy will only last as long as this election cycle. Although there will always be a certain level of hypocrisy it is quite soothing to know that all signs lead to a decrease in hypocrisy as this election cycle draws to a close.
