Taking the Hypocritic Oath

A couple days ago, Salon published a very good article by Chauncey Devega, titled -- "Stop calling the GOP fascists 'hypocrites': No one cares, and they have no shame."  His point is basically that liberals waste too much time trying to make an issue of the hypocrisy of Republicans, and that's a waste of time and focus, since hypocrisy is almost one of the features of today's GOP.

He goes into a lot of thoughtful detail.  And I liked the article very much.  But I do have a couple of disagreements with it.

The first is the title (which, in fairness, he likely didn't write) and the other is what he gives as his only reason why liberals and Democrats call Republicans hypocrites (which directly leads to why he says calling Republicans "hypocrites" is meaningless). 

1) If the GOP doesn't care about being called hypocrites, they won't care much or at all about being called fascists, and so calling them that won't stop them either -- yet he does so. And rightly does so. It's flawed logic, largely based, it seems, on his preferred choice of name-calling nouns.  Yes, Republicans would vehemently deny they're fascists, but then they also generally deny being hypocrites, usually coming up with contortions to explain why their positions aren't hypocritical at all.  (Sort of in the same vein as, "We don't listen to what Trump says, only what he does."  Which is further twisted by the reality that they listen to him all the time.  They just weed out the things that would force them to admit being hypocrites.)

Also, just on general principle, I rarely like when someone says "No one cares."  While there might be some things in life where almost no one -- or even actually no one -- cares, for the most part it means "I don't care, and many others don't either."  But it's clear that A LOT of people care that Republicans are hypocrites.  If the title had said, "None of them care," it might have still been an exaggeration, but one that hews much closer to the truth.  The headline writer might have though "None of them" was implied, but it wasn't.  "No one" is pretty clear.

2) He's right, too, why liberals and Democrats call GOP hypocrites.  It's along the lines of "God's judgment is called down to punish the 'hypocrite'' who has transgressed against the democratic order and its supposed commitment to truth and facts."  And also they want Republicans to admit they were wrong and so await an "expression of repentance and a kind of conversion experience, in which Republicans and their followers come back to reason and fully commit themselves to 'normal' social and political behavior."

I'm sure that's a reason, and he's right about it -- but not as the only reason, which is how he dogmatically states is. Life is far too complex for just one reason to explain something so deeply central to the core idea of truth. And among many of those other reasons, perhaps, I would suggest, even the most important reason, is that Democrats and liberals also call out hypocrisy so it isn't accepted as normal. If you ignore pointing out hypocrisy, then words and positions lose their meaning.  You can say whatever you want without ever being held to account for who you are and what you stand for, and you will continue to do so. And that's why it's important to keep calling hypocrisy. We just shouldn't expect it to matter to GOP fascist hypocrites. But then, we don't live by their standards. 

Those two points aside, the article is sharp, insightful and well-worth reading.  You can find the whole thing here.