Highest Hypocrisy

One of the persons that we have been told over the years is, never to trust a used car salesman. This is not to bash people who sell used cars, but if a poll was taken, this writer is convinced that more than half of those asked would say, “don’t trust them”. Used car salesmen may have been number 1 over the years, but they have no doubt been replaced by politicians. That has never been more amplified than by the actions of Republicans since Donald Trump became president. To be fair, there have been some Democrats who have “spoken out both sides of their mouth”, but Republicans are on a level by themselves. The news of late has been the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was known as a fearless fighter of women, Black and LGBTQ people. She also developed quite a cult following, becoming known as the “Notorious RBG”, a woman who was fearless yet gentle in her approach in the way she conducted herself on the bench. And it is about the Supreme Court where this nation is seeing not only a widening political divide, but a level of hypocrisy from some leaders who once talked about fair play and upholding the principles of democracy as if Jefferson, Washington and Adams were still here. The hypocrisy that we hear with our ears and see with our eyes, is coming from Republicans in Congress (yes, the “values” crowd), who are refusing the “let the American people” decide who the next Supreme Court justice will be. It started when then President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to succeed Anthony Scalia on the Court after his death. But it was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who refused to even grant Garland the courtesy of a hearing, saying that in an election year, the voters should “decide” by electing the next president of the U.S. Never mind that there is no rule or precedent for such a move, as it is the president’s role to send a nominee to the Senate, where hearings are supposed to occur followed by a vote to confirm or reject the nominee. Something that had been going on for a couple hundred of years.

Nevertheless, not to McConnell and others like Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton, who somehow went against constitutional norms, simply because Republicans didn’t want to embarrass themselves by having to reject an individual that they knew was more than qualified to sit on the Court, but also at the same time, insult the nation’s first Black president, which they did. Principles of democracy had nothing to do with their decision, or respect for the office of the presidency and not the man himself that sat in the Oval Office, but all about power. The power in a Supreme Court to rule on issues that favor their “principles”, and with people whose principles are the same as theirs. However, now that Justice Ginsburg has died, Mitch McConnell sees nothing wrong with proceeding with confirming whomever President Trump nominates because what the president wants (as long he is in the same party), he gets, except when that president is of the other party. In addition, McConnell some say, is cementing his legacy as a shrewd politician who apparently doesn’t mind that his integrity as a “man of honor” to have served in the Halls of Congress, will be stripped away from him by those who will write history as it happened. The full context of McConnell and others like him who are defending their own words and the emptiness of those words is on full display, because there is no way that they can explain why under the exact circumstances, “their way” is what’s best for the nation. Nowhere will one hear the word “honor” in what they are doing.

Nonetheless you will hear about “saving the nation” from socialism, closing houses of worship, taking guns away, open borders and other things if the Supreme Court is not led by “strict constructionists”, supposedly people who know exactly what the Framers had in mind drafting the Constitution. Maybe McConnell is hoping that someone will build a statue in his “honor” somewhere in Kentucky. If President Trump loses in November, don’t be surprised if he blames McConnell for that loss. Great leaders are known by words that inspire their followers especially through bad times. President Trump and McConnell won’t be known by many words of inspiration, if any. However, they will be known by their words of hypocrisy, when they could have acknowledged them and done the “principled” thing by talking fairness and doing what was right. It didn’t happen. Makes a person wonder what they will say on that Day when the playback button is pushed and then have to give an account of their words. Would you buy a used car from Mitch McConnell? Remember, the world is watching. So is God.