Here’s a bit of a warning: this piece contains political observations and what may be mistaken as my personal opinions, but I would rather call them “thoughts in progress.” I’m trying to be observant, and one of the main reasons I started writing this blog over a year ago was to formulate my thoughts and get them out there for anyone who wanted to pick them apart.
So sure, there are political opinions contained within this piece – some of them with which I may agree, and some with which I may not. But I don’t mind if anyone disagrees with anything I say. That’s one of the rules here. As long as we all interact with grace and thoughtfulness, you can’t really rattle me.
So here, I saw a YouTube piece by the NY Times, and of course its title is going to catch my eye (as titles are supposed to do); but even more so for one from the Times: “Liberal Hypocrisy is Fueling American Inequality. Here’s How.” It contained a fairly good explainer as to why they were making the claim – basically boiling it down to income inequalities and NIMBY attitudes, while Democrat-controlled executive and legislative branches of the states featured take no action – or even opposing action that could help.
It’s a good piece, and I recommend you watch it through. It seems to make sense.
But something else caught my eye: Usually, when one watches YouTube or reads an article online, it’s best to stay away from the comments. But Times readers are generally pretty intelligent, and their comments thoughtful. So I glanced through a few, and one made the common logical misstep (my opinion) of responding with “well, they should do this for the other side too;” as if the other side being hypocritical is some kind of solution. “They’re hypocrites, so we should get to be hypocrites too” is not something any of us should want in our leaders.
But this does leave the wonderful opportunity for me to think that comment through. And my first thought was that Republicans are equally indefensible in their own, different way. The Dems were nailed in that video based on what they said in their very platform, and I’m sure the Republican platform is written quite differently. One thing can be said for the Republican view though – they don’t make the same promises. While the Dem side claims to be for the poor (while at the same time being quite wealthy), the GOP comes from the view that getting rich (and not just getting by) is the whole point. If someone can’t succeed, well, that’s probably because they’re just not working hard enough. Republicans don’t seem to get poverty, or choose to ignore some of its most basic root causes. Their idea is to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps and succeed through good, old-fashioned hard work.
But that’s a load of crap. Getting there (usually) does require a lot of hard work, but there are several other factors involved that many often ignore. It’s certainly not as easy as Steve Martin puts it when he tells us how to become a millionaire. “First: get a million dollars…” It really doesn’t work that way.
Still, Republicans are far worse in other ways. They’re “rock-solid” on things like “family values,” “moral uprightness,” and “fiscal responsibility,” right? Well, I hate to break it to you, but if you’ve been paying any kind of attention over the past several years, you’ll see that their words on any of those issues amount pretty much to a heaping pile of bull manure (don’t ask me for examples, because if you can’t figure it out for yourself, then no number of examples I give are going to help here). You’ve got to face it across the board: our state- and national-level politicians in particular are real pieces of work, entirely untrustworthy and pretty much in it for the power. And the theater. It’s quite obvious that the energy dedicated to grandstanding by some of our leaders far outweighs that which they put into their actual work (another factor which social media has done nothing but exacerbate).
Now, I could leave it there with a rant, but I’d just as soon end it along the lines of my favorite Muggeridge quote to drive it home – “The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.” This is especially true when we’re thinking about our own tribes. We can’t see the hypocrisy staring us right in the face. It’s always the other guy.
But it isn’t. It’s us. And when I say “us,” I mean “me.” You too, but definitely me. And what can I (or any of us) do about it? As always, I appeal to that which is outside of me. I fall upon the one who loved me enough to die for me – the one who can truly change me into a person who can honorably (well, as much as can be done with my imperfect nature) reflect his love. And not a love that is self-serving, but rather, a love that seeks the welfare of others before myself. From the one who not only said “greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends,” but also, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (that’d be Jesus if you have to look it up).
I have often said that if we fix this one thing, we can do so much more.
Now, doesn’t that make more sense?
