Has Hypocricy Become Acceptable?

Casablancais one of America’s best-loved movies.  Also beloved is Claude Raines quip about gambling at Rick’s Place.  In case you forgot, it goes: “I am shocked; shocked that gambling is going on.”  This just after Raines has picked up his winnings.

Nowadays this vignette is often quoted as an example of blatant hypocrisy.  Indeed, the scene is doing extra-duty in that hypocrisy is almost everywhere.  As such, it is as unremarkable as it was at Rick’s.

What is more, it is treated as totally acceptable.  Recently I heard a TV commentator remark at the gross hypocrisy of a prominent politician and then immediately cite the Casablanca reference. After this, he laughed.  There is currently so much insincerity in Washington it scarcely deserves mention.

Lest we forget what hypocrisy is; it is saying one thing, then behaving in a contradictory way.  Although we know that politicians lie, they have done so much of this lately that we accept it as a matter of course.  Hence, we are no longer offended by it; nor do we declaim it as immoral.

That’s what made president Trump’s proposal about what to do with illegal immigrants so riveting.  Given that Central American lawbreakers are overwhelming our southern border, there is no more space to hold them.  Trump therefore proposed sending them to sanctuary cities.  

The Democrats who run these cities have long proclaimed that these migrants should be welcomed with open arms.  This was therefore an opportunity to prove how hospitable liberals are. They should have jumped at the chance.

But no, they cried foul.  Trump was disrespecting vulnerable migrants to make a political point.  And of course he was.  He was using this offer as a means of highlighting Democratic hypocrisy.  Progressives manifestly said one thing, while doing another on many, many occasions.

Consider the issue of open borders.  How many times have liberals insisted that they are not for open borders, but then done everything they could to keep them open?  Thus they might have voted for a border wall: they didn’t. They could have proposed legislation to fix our asylum policy: they refused to.  They could have supported extra beds at the border: they did the opposite.

Indeed, one of the most glaring incidents of hypocrisy also concerned the border wall.  Time and again, Democrats argued that the wall was too expensive.  The several billion dollars spent on it would be money wasted.  But then, almost in the same breath, they proposed to spend trillions on healthcare.

Democrats never worry about spending money, except if Republicans do it. They often talk about saving the public’s hard earned dollars, but never follow through in a meaningful way.  Shouldn’t they be called out for this?

It is the same with breaking the laws.  They are tickled pink to see conservatives investigated, but alarmed when the shoe is on the other foot.  In the latter case, the investigators are alleged to be disreputable. Attorney-General Barr is obviously a Trump toady.

So let me make another suggestion about how to deal with the migrant crisis.  Let’s use I.C.E. in the way its detractors claim it is being used.  Let’s flood selected sanctuary cities with agents dedicated to picking up and deporting illegals who have not kept their court dates.

It is said that a knock at the door in the middle of the night would terrify these poor souls.  I hope so. If enough of them are genuinely frightened, they might warn others not to follow in their footsteps.  I would also make these arrests as unpredictable as possible.  The idea would be to unsettle the targets.

When it comes to protecting illegals or American citizens, I vote for the Americans nearly every time.  Some say this is not being nice to downtrodden folks.  I don’t care.  I refuse to be a hypocrite.  Enforcing the law often entails inflicting pain.  Yet without the law, where would we be?

Liberals frequently reproach us for failing to do what is impossible. The Green New Deal is a flagrant example.  Then they stand back and pretend to be morally superior.  This is why they need to be confronted with their contradictions.  

Liars are not superior people.  We should not allow them to get away with their hypocrisies.  These are not cute; they are not helpful.  If we allow them to go unchallenged, we will soon drown in sea of mendacity.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says global warming will do us in.  I say immorality posing as morality will get us there first.

Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

Kennesaw State University