GOP Hypocrisy has long been a feature of the Republican Party. It used to be confined to the standouts in the hierarchy, like Nixon. But this century, like a viral epidemic, it has spread exponentially, infecting every member, including the rationale underpinning their agenda.
GOP hypocrisy is pervasive and pernicious, and it’s reached critical levels. Two of the worst examples have their roots in the past but are still spreading their poison in the present.
The blatant dishonesty of “trickle-down economics” is a relic of GOP hypocrisy from the Reagan years. With 40 years of hard evidence proving its inefficacy, it still persists as one of many republican zombie lies. The very foundation of tax cuts for the wealthy is based on a lie. The amount paid in tax should be the result of calculations, not the first premise of a tax plan. The priority must always be a determination of the base amount people need to live on. It’s how much is left after tax that is the crucial figure and it’s that which should determine the percentage of taxation at each socio-economic income level above a base tax-free threshold.
But it would be inaccurate to say Republicans got their economic plan wrong. The GOP hypocrisy on which trickle-down is based is completely intentional. Their aim is to transfer all the nation’s wealth to the top 0.1%. Ultimately, their objective is to replace democracy with a plutocracy which is rule of the people by the wealthiest for the wealthiest. Everything they do is designed to advance this directive.
However, they cannot reveal this reality to their voting base, hence their need for warped arguments and downright lies to cover up the truth.
Voter suppression laws are another GOP hypocrisy, based on another zombie lie. They claim these laws are needed to prevent fraud yet the incidence of voter fraud is so low, it’s incapable of affecting any election outcome.
The Brennan Center for Justice paper, Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth, explains:
The Brennan Center’s seminal report on this issue, The Truth About Voter Fraud, found that most reported incidents of voter fraud are actually traceable to other sources, such as clerical errors or bad data matching practices. The report reviewed elections that had been meticulously studied for voter fraud, and found incident rates between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Given this tiny incident rate for voter impersonation fraud, it is more likely, the report noted, that an American “will be struck by lightning than that he will impersonate another voter at the polls.”
Republicans are also claiming their new tranch of laws extends voting opportunities. More lies. Cutting the number of early voting days, access to polling booths, drop boxes and mail-in ballots and shortening opening hours on election day combine to significantly limit voting options.
Gabriel Stirling, the Georgia Secretary of State’s chief operating officer, admitted in an hour-long interview on the Meidas Touch Podcast, that the focus of Georgia’s suppression laws was to cut costs and ease the workload for election officials. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that making voting easier for voters should be the aim. On the contrary, he made it crystal clear that voters should put up with resulting “inconveniences” because their increased numbers in November 2020 had made it very hard work for elected republicans and election officials. He cast aspersions on county officials, especially the largest blue county, for mismanagement which added to the headaches for those in the Secretary of State office.
The contrast with the follow-up interview featuring election attorney extraordinaire Marc Elias was stunning. He rightly pointed out that making voting easier for voters must be the priority, the base point which every part of the election process must facilitate. If that means employing more election officials, providing better online and in-person training, and allocating more money to the process then those are the changes they need to be making.
From the Georgia omnibus of new suppression laws arose the MBL’s decision to move their All-Stars game from Georgia to Colorado. That triggered instant GOP hypocrisy when Republicans jumped from an angry outcry against “cancel culture” to a full-throated boycott of the MBL. They denounced the League for succumbing to Left activism as though MBL officials were all feeble-minded and easily led. In fact, the MBL was responding to the wishes of its players who showed a considerable capacity for making up their own minds about the issue. Elected Republicans and right-wing media predictably ignored that fact.
The right-wing swing into a cancel culture movement of their very own quickly extended to Delta Airlines and Coke Cola, both headquartered in Georgia, and both expressing belated opposition to the voter suppression laws. Before Republicans had finished declaring a boycott of those corporations too, dozens of other companies had joined them.
That was enough to pitch Mitch McConnell into a furious rant.
“I found it completely discouraging to find a bunch of corporate CEOs getting in the middle of politics,” McConnell told a press conference in his home state of Kentucky on Monday. “My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don’t pick sides in these big fights.”
So, according to McConnell, corporate CEOs are not to express their First Amendment rights to free speech.
He warned companies against giving into advocacy campaigns. “It’s jaw-dropping to see powerful American institutions not just permit themselves to be bullied, but join in the bullying themselves,” he said.
Evidently, McConnell considers these CEOs to be as feeble-minded and easily led as MLB officials. He also threatened them with “serious consequences” if they continued to speak out against Republicans. That’s not going down well with his corporate audience, many of whom are major Republican donors — and Twitter was quick to point out the hypocrisy.
Corporations should respect McConnell's wishes by no longer making contributions to @GOP or GOP candidates. https://t.co/8beBjeKgLi
— EQV Analytics (@AnalyticsEqv) April 5, 2021
When this was pointed out to McConnell, he gave us what has to be the most blatant GOP hypocrisy of the year so far.
Sen. McConnell: "My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It's not what you`re designed for. I'm not talking about political contributions. … I support that. I'm talking about taking a position."https://t.co/PtLOjpNEmk
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 7, 2021
So there it is: McConnell expects hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate donations (which SCOTUS ruled as being a part of free speech) but if corporate CEOs use free speech to express an opinion that opposes Republicans, they will be punished.
It’s another GOP hypocrisy that the US Constitution, which they claim to revere, is nevertheless constantly being subjected to revisionist interpretations. Hence,
Congress shall make no law …abridging the freedom of speech
doesn’t exclude Republican lawmakers from threatening dire consequences against corporations and organisations if they don’t like their public stance on political issues.
In a Washington Post opinion piece, columnist Greg Sargent wrote:
An extraordinary event took place in Georgia on Wednesday night. Republicans sought to cancel a tax break for Delta Air Lines, the state’s biggest employer, as punishment for the heresy of criticizing the new voter-suppression law Republicans passed last week.
And a top Republican has openly, blithely confirmed that this was exactly the motive.
Kelly Yamanouchi, Greg Bluestein and Matt Kempner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported:
Kemp and other GOP leaders say they were caught off guard by the opposition, and the Georgia House retaliated by narrowly voting to end a lucrative tax break on jet fuel during the final, frenzied day of the legislative session.
“They like our public policy when we’re doing things that benefit them,” said House Speaker David Ralston, adding: “You don’t feed a dog that bites your hand. You got to keep that in mind sometimes.”
In the Georgia Senate where there’s a good deal less enthusiasm for overtly punishing Delta, the measure failed to make it to a final vote.
The most recent example of GOP hypocrisy requires a little background for context.
Back on October 2, 2020, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported:
Republican National Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel last week spoke to a crowded room of Trump supporters in Norwood, near Cincinnati.
McDaniel visited the Trump campaign office in Norwood to rally women for the president’s campaign. Dozens packed the small office in a Norwood strip mall.
The report didn’t say whether or not McDaniel masked up but it did note that among the few who wore masks, most pulled them down or off during the event. That suggests they were imitating McDaniel. (It’s common for adulatory followers to mirror the actions and appearance of their leaders.) The complete lack of social distancing as seen in photos of the event certainly demonstrates their total disregard for CDC guidelines.
After the event, the Cincinnati Enquirer did ask the RNC chairwoman about health concerns regarding such a crowded indoor gathering in the midst of a pandemic.
“People are making a decision on their own health and safety, and if you have an underlying condition, don’t go to an event like that,” McDaniel told The Enquirer.
Uninformed and irresponsible, McDaniel’s response was typical of the attitude of Republican leaders throughout 2020, an attitude that abetted pigheaded Republican dissenters who resisted masking, social distancing, lockdowns and even testing. The moral bankruptcy and belligerent attitude of the Republican Party amplified partisan rejection of all safety provisions and consequently endangered the entire nation.
Fast forward to April 2021 and the RNC’s Spring Donor Retreat this weekend. It’s being held in Florida, a state infamous for its rejection of closures, lockdowns, masks and social distancing. The state where the witless and corrupt Ron DeSantis re-routed Florida’s early round of vaccines to the biggest contributors among his donors.
While the main venue for the Retreat is a luxury hotel in Palm Beach, Trump will be hosting the Saturday dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Trump, who largely ignored the pandemic because it interfered with his personal schedule. Trump, who didn’t wear a mask or bother with social distancing at his rallies but did insist on being the first to get the vaccine when it arrived.
Trump and DeSantis. Among Republican leaders, they would have to be two of the most self-centred, avaricious, callous and immoral, and the two worst advertisements for health and safety.
Yet their state of residence is where Ronna McDaniel decided to hold this year’s RNC Spring Donor Retreat. That in itself wouldn’t be surprising but the conditions the RNC is mandating for all participants is an unexpected deviation from past behaviour.
The Washington Examiner reported:
[A]ccording to an email the RNC sent to people planning to attend the retreat, participants must first “take a COVID-19 PCR or Rapid Antigen test and receive a negative result.” That information must be provided to the RNC in advance. Negative coronavirus tests are a prerequisite for attending the retreat, even for those who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
It’s a prerequisite no less, and they’re not taking anybody’s word for it either.
“Proof of a negative COVID-19 test result is required in order to receive your credentials for the weekend,” the email stated. “If you or members in your party fail to fulfill (sic) this requirement, you will be denied entry to the 2021 RNC Spring Retreat.”
An RNC official confirmed the veracity of the email.
It’s not surprising that Washington Examiner‘s Senior Political Correspondent, David M Drucker, sought confirmation before publishing this mind-boggling announcement. It’s hardly what anyone would expect from a group that chose to hold an event in a state with such reckless disregard for the welfare of its citizens. That’s some gobsmacking GOP hypocrisy right there.
There are many, many other examples but it would take a book – and a hefty volume at that – to contain them all. But an exhaustive list is not needed for us to recognise GOP hypocrisy when we come across it, or to recognise that it’s on the increase.
That GOP hypocrisy has reached critical levels is indicative of increasing desperation. They didn’t expect to lose in 2020; that was not part of the plan. Losing control of the White House and the Senate as well as the House has plunged them into a state of uncertainty and insecurity.
That’s led to a frantic scrabbling for power and the spawning of schemes to not only reinforce what they still have but to guarantee future control. Crushing all opposition is central to their ambitions. However, to achieve it, they must resort to undemocratic and unconstitutional subterfuge – and subterfuge requires a dense layer of deception to disguise it. Creating cover stories that trick their gullible followers and the right-wing media into believing they are rational arguments is difficult. Thus their desperate attempts to justify themselves become more ludicrous and the utter hypocrisy more blatant.
The GOP hypocrisy scale is an indicator analogous to a medical thermometer. It’s taking the temperature of the Republican Party and the prognosis isn’t good. Expect to see more Republican melt-downs in the near future because the hypocrisy scale is telling us the GOP is imploding.
Sen. McConnell: “My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It’s not what you`re designed for. I’m not talking about political contributions. … I support that. I’m talking about taking a position.”
Soooo…big corporate CEO’s not only have no right to free speech or to have an opinion about matters affecting the citizens of this country, they are also still supposed to send their checks to corrupt politicians who insult them and attempt to extort them? ?
The GOP voting base continually favor tax cuts to the rich because they all generally see themselves as temporarily embarrassed millionaires. In other words, they think they are voting for their interests. That is why they say things like, “Why shouldn’t people be able to keep more of the money they worked so hard to earn?” They cannot face the cognitive dissonance from understanding that every dollar to the already rich is being redistributed to the rich out of their own pockets. Faced with the facts the most of the already wealthy did not earn their wealth, they resort to, “Somebody worked for it originally, why shouldn’t they be able to pass on the fruits of their labor tax-free?” without understanding that 99.xxx% of Americans are able to do just that. Only about 5000 estate tax returns per year show even a dollar (to a million or more depending on the size of the estate) of estate tax liability.
Odd how they rail against COVID Passports but require DOCUMENTATION of a negative COVID test to be a part of their cult meeting.
I keep flashing on the end of The Shining where the camera zooms in on a picture of a new year’s party of the damned. Some folks are evil. Plain & simple. And they damn themselves.