Let’s start with this: They don’t deserve any, and most people can connect those two dots.
They lie, all the time, about everything, and dishonesty will cost you credibility.
They’re incompetent; everything they touch goes bad (e.g., the deregulation that led to the 1980s and 2000s financial scandals), and they don’t learn from their mistakes. Consistently bad results will cost you credibility.
They reject reality and embrace crazy conspiracy theories. And lately they’ve become violently undemocratic. Delusional sociopathic behavior will make you, well, not taken seriously (except by the police).
But probably the biggest single reason is their hypocrisy.
This takes many forms, such as legislators who ban abortion for the general public while sending their mistresses out of country for abortions, or Lindsey Graham’s infamous impeachment flip-flopping (see here); for a small selection of other examples of Republican hypocrisy, type “hypocrisy” into the search bar above.
Because there are so many examples of Republican hypocrisy, it will be expedient if we focus on just one, preferably one currently in the news. Let’s use improper handling of government records.
Remember ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails? Sure you do. Trump made them a campaign issue in the 2016 presidential debates (after asking Putin to make them public). That’s what “lock her up!” was all about.
Well, this week the FBI executed a search warrant at ex-President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort and private club (where Chinese spies hang out) to retrieve government records he took with him from the White House which some less-charitable (i.e. liberal-leaning) media sources have described as “stolen.” (It’s not known exactly what terminology the federal judge who signed the search warrant used, because the warrant hasn’t been made public.)
And what are Republicans saying about that? Utterly predictable.
“Suspicion that Trump withheld key government documents when he returned others to the National Archives seven months ago appears to be at the center of the firestorm,” the Guardian reported on Wednesday, August 10, 2022, two days after the FBI “visit” to Mar-a-Lago, by which time things are beginning to come into clearer focus. This is roughly akin to a shoplifter coughing up only some of the stolen goods, and the police going into her home to get the rest.
Except here, we’re talking about national security secrets in possession of someone known to be exceedingly careless in how he handles such materials. It’s probably not a coincidence the search followed a visit in June to Mar-a-Lago by the head of the FBI’s counterintelligence section. As the Guardian said, “The whiff of espionage … hangs in the air.”
Now enter the rank, rancid hypocrisy. “Six years ago,” the Guardian reminds us, “Kevin McCarthy, then House majority leader, trashed Clinton’s judgment, and castigated her ‘total disregard for protecting and handling our nation’s highly classified secrets’. He also demanded an expeditious FBI investigation, together with a thorough and ‘transparent’ briefing.”
And what’s he saying now? “McCarthy has put Merrick Garland on notice [that he] will be the focal point of Republican-driven congressional investigations come next year.” And, “These days, the Republican party demonizes federal law enforcement and the US intelligence community.” More flip-flopping.
Look, it’s one thing to disagree with their positions on issues. It’s something else when you don’t know what their positions are, because they keep changing with the weather. The one constant in their positions is: Republicans can do no wrong, and Democrats are never right. They have no principles anymore, if they ever did; it’s all pure naked partisanship. And different rules for different parties.
When you’re looking for someone to lead your country, that’s not good enough. You expect principled leadership, and consistency. If something is bad when Democrats do it, then it’s bad when Republicans do it, too. And honesty, truthfulness, and being in contact with reality matter. So does preserving the rule of law, and that’s why FBI agents paid a visit to Mar-a-Lago this week.