Democrats defend Biden for taking classified documents home with him on the grounds that he took fewer and that he turned them in voluntarily, unlike Trump. Problem is, Biden was so vituperative when talking about Trump’s irresponsibility. Hypocrisy is political Kryptonite.
American media, and therefore voters, often roar approvingly as the citizens of countries that are at odds with the United States engage in violent protests. When the same thing happens here, however, their hypocrisy becomes readily apparent.
Which Joe Biden should voters believe? The one who, for many years, was a pro-lifer who was so extreme that he voted against federal funding for abortions even in the case of rape, incest and the life of the mother? Or the current one who says he would codify Roe v. Wade if he got the chance — which, of course, Obama chose not to do while Biden was vice president.
From the Monroe Doctrine to the ongoing blockade of Cuba, the United States has repeatedly exerted and exercised its prerogative to invade any country in its immediate region, up to and including the entire Western hemisphere, if it perceives a threat of any kind, whether real or imagined. So it’s a bit baffling that so many Americans violently deplore Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is right along its border, after Ukraine threatened to join NATO, an anti-Russian military alliance.
Georgia senatorial candidate and former NFL star Herschel Walker is campaigning as militantly pro-life and anti-choice on abortion rights. But there is credible evidence that he paid for and endorsed an abortion that his girlfriend had in the past. Because they simply want to win, Republican officials and voters are happy to overlook his brazen hypocrisy.
American media outlets smugly report human rights abuses abroad while ignoring those at home. Case in point: Iranians outraged over the death of a woman in custody of the morality police over her hijab are getting prominent coverage in the US. Meanwhile, in at least 14 states, you can’t get an abortion for any reason. In Iran, on the other hand, abortion is still legal under some circumstances.
Democrats rightly criticize Republicans for efforts to suppress the Democratic vote. But both parties suppress third parties like the Greens and Libertarians. If you doubt that, look for the third parties next time you cast a ballot. Any country with just two parties can’t reasonably call itself a democracy.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” That statement is often misattributed to Edmund Burke. After Russia invaded Ukraine, many Americans who didn’t have anything to say about the invasion of Afghanistan or Iraq, much less torture at Guantánamo and elsewhere, or Yemen, or Palestine, suddenly started wearing blue and yellow flags. They weren’t good before, so how can these self-serving souls think they are suddenly being good now?
Nothing that Russia is doing in Ukraine is something that the United States has done many times elsewhere over the years. But there’s a big difference in the way that these events get covered. When the US does something horrible, it is dismissed as an incongruous departure from standard American values or simply not covered at all.
Defenders of American imperialism cleverly use the slur “whataboutism” in order to denigrate anyone who points out that the United States doesn’t have the moral standing to criticize other countries in matters of war and peace.
