Crying Hypocrisy is a Dead End

There’s a lot of talk about hypocrisy now that the Republicans have taken over the White House. Both sides are waving a hypocrisy finger at the other. A couple examples:

When Trump started passing Executive Orders, the Left began screaming about abuse of power. Those on the right replied, “Oh, now you care about Executive Orders? Hypocrisy!”

In 2014, Obama’s press secretary Josh Earnest claimed that Obama never referred to ISIS as a JV team, when it was pretty clear from the transcripts that he did. The Right appropriately went ballistic, while the Left tried to parse his words to minimize the lie. But wait, just 10 days ago, when the new White House press secretary gave “alternative facts” about crowd size, the Left appropriately destroyed him, while the Right tried to parse his words to minimize the lie. HYPOCRISY!!!

What are we accomplishing here? Absolutely nothing. The problem with taking up this argument is that it won’t win anyone over. It never does.

Think of it in terms of something simple, like an argument with your spouse. Let’s imagine you left the toilet seat up last night and your unhappy wife is giving you an earful. In response, you tell her that just last week, she left the toilet seat up after she had cleaned it! How dare she! Now, what does this debate accomplish? Is it going to convince your wife that it’s okay to leave the toilet seat up? Nope. Is arguing over her hypocrisy going to solve anything? No. The only thing it might do is make her less likely to bring it up the next time. But this doesn’t address the real issue at hand. It would be much more valuable to discuss the merits of leaving the seat up or down. Maybe, if there are 4 boys in the house, it makes sense… or if your wife sleeps with nightvision goggles. The hard truth here is, the only reason you are pointing out your wife’s hypocrisy is to avoid having this debate, because deep down you know you’re in the wrong here.

It’s no different in the political sphere. When you point out that Republicans were once screaming about press secretary lies too, it doesn’t solve anything. It only avoids the worthy discussion of the accountability of an administration.

Instead, we should learn to take the high ground, and push through the urge to complain about hypocrisy. The same goes for the media bias argument. Yes, the media outlets are biased for “their guy”. Yes, they are often hypocritical. So what? Just accept it and move onto the real meat of the issue, whatever it is, and have that debate. This will help bring civilized conversation back again.

Nobody likes to hear a whiner, so rise above it. When others are being hypocritical, brush aside the urge to go down that dead end path and debate them on facts and ideals instead. So here’s the challenge for yourself — can you debate without using the hypocrisy or media bias argument? Yes, it’s an uphill battle, but if you’ve done your research, then the facts are on your side. And when they aren’t, well… you can always buy her those nightvision goggles.

Looking to do your part? One way to get involved is to read the Indivisible Guide, which is written by former congressional staffers and is loaded with best practices for making Congress listen.