They Do It Too!

Have you noticed that during this political season when one side gets caught in an embarrassing moment, the other side is soon accused of something similar?  For example, when the Clinton Foundation came under attack, it was not long before opposition research zeroed in on the Trump Foundation.

The idea is to make two problems equivalent so that they cancel out.  Although they might be of an entirely different magnitude, if they are treated the same rhetorically, the voters may not notice the difference.  In fact, this technique works depressing well.

Consider the Foundation controversy.  The Clinton Foundation is a political slush fund.  It has collected billions of dollars that have mostly gone to subsidizing Clinton hangers-on.  The idea was to finance a campaign team-in-waiting until it was needed.

The Clinton operation was also a way of laundering money.  Foreign nations that wanted favors from the Clintons could make donations to this ostensible charity, while collecting their payoffs from another door.  This way if the public watched one hand, it would not notice what the other was doing.

This is flat out corruption.  There is no other word for it.  The Clintons put their public offices up for sale just like they once rented out the Lincoln Bedroom; just like they sold pardons to felons when Bill was leaving the presidency.

Compare this with the Trump Foundation.  First of all, Trump’s is a much smaller operation.  Second, it was not primarily political.  Until recently, he was not a politician and therefore did not have favors to sell.  If anything, he was in the business of purchasing special treatment.

Trump has also been criticized for not financing his Foundation with his own funds.  This ought to be laughable in that virtually all of the Clinton money came from outsiders.  Although Trump has not exactly been altruistic, his alleged generosity was never a major selling point.

What really needs emphasis, however, is the lies.  Trump is no saint.  He has not always taken the high road.  But compared with the Clintons, he is a paragon of virtue.  When it comes to misstatements, his are typically exaggerations.  Indeed, they are sometimes so hyperbolic as to be silly.

The Clinton fabrications, on the other hand, are ruthlessly self-serving.  Whenever they get into trouble, they deny, deny, deny.  This is not a recent development.  Hillary and Bill have been at it from the beginning of their political careers.

Do you recall Bill’s fib about marihuana.  When caught in a lie about whether he indulged, he obfuscated by claiming that he never inhaled.  And when it was discovered that he misled the public about his draft status, he again told half-truths.

As for Hillary, when Bill’s dalliance with Gennifer Flowers became public, she flat out repudiated it.  It never happened.  This failed entertainer had made it up.  She was probably going after cheap publicity.  Of course, we now know there was an affair.  Flowers was telling the truth.

Over the last year how many whoppers has Hillary told?  Remember, there was nothing classified on the server.  The FBI gave her a complete pass.  She believed the Benghazi tragedy was due to a video.  She never claimed that the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership was the “gold standard.”

So what does she do when caught?  She points a finger at others.  She tries to divert attention by maintaining that they are worse.  It doesn’t matter if they are; she jumps up and down and swears it is so.

But isn’t this what teenagers do when they get caught doing something wrong?  Don’t the try to get off the hook by saying that everyone does it?  Nevertheless, most parents don’t buy this.  They quickly ask: if Johnny jumped off the roof, would you jump off too?

Hillary’s lies are so egregious that they deserve reflexive dismissal.  Donald may have lied about some things, but the difference in degree is so great as to be one in kind.  She is a habitual prevaricator.  She is so routinely counterfeit that other’s sins ought not absolve her of her own. 

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor of Sociology

Kennesaw State University