Political season breeds hypocrisy
Political brainwashing makes hypocrites of even the most well-meaning people. This political season is no exception. Among the major areas of hypocrisy are three that affect a disproportionate number of Americans.
Especially vulnerable are the people who claim they are religious adherents and support family values. They are not only evangelicals who, one would assume, have strong moral commitments, but other churchgoers who claim they believe in righteousness, honesty and moral behavior, and espouse these beliefs in their churches and instill them into their children. But look at what political brainwashing has done to so many of them. They support for president a man who is a proven liar, cheat, draft-dodger, tax evader, foul-mouthed speaker and, if nothing else, a libertine whose moral behavior includes having sex with paid prostitutes, even when his young wife was pregnant with their first child. What a role model of immorality they present to their children! Do religious Trump supporters realize what they are teaching their children and how hypocritical they are to their religious and to their presumed family values?
In my state of Florida many people are actively opposing a state Constitution amendment on November’s ballot that would legalize recreational use of marijuana. They believe that their efforts are for the health and safety of their fellow residents of the state. Given the facts of the real threat from smoking, their efforts are misplaced. Political brainwashing has made their commitments hypocritical. Each year 480,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking, according to a 2024 report by the American Lung Association, and an additional 41,000 die from second-hand smoke. A 2023 article in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship showed that the yearly deaths from smoking marijuana are just 386. Their intentions may be good, but hypocritically misplaced. If they really want to save the health and lives of smokers they should put their energies, time and resources into campaigns to ban cigarettes, not marijuana.
The increasing individual and mass murders in America with guns makes the availability, control, and use of guns a continuing critical political issue for every American. The Association of Health Care reported that almost 43,000 of us were killed by guns in 2023. Firearms have become the leading cause of death of children and teenagers, increasing by 50% in recent years. Efforts to limit the carnage are opposed principally by right-wing politicians, their supporters, and by organizations such as the National Rifle Association. The latter, despite continuing revelations of inner corruption, appears to maintain strong control over and loyalty from its members. Its continuing brainwashing is critical to its purposes in key political years like 2024. Many gun owners who use the weapons solely for recreational target practice or historical military reenactments have been caught in its web, ignoring or not being aware of the hypocritical aspects of their support. Perhaps the most blatant example of the hypocrisy of those opposed to gun controls is the frequent comparison of guns and automobiles. People kill people with both, they say, that guns and automobiles are innocent tools, and that if guns are banned, so should automobiles be. Setting aside the fact that the basic purpose of guns is to kill, and the purpose of automobiles is to transport, let’s consider the gun advocates' gun-auto comparison. If they really believed their analogy, logic would compel them to support similar requirements for gun ownership and use as for automobile ownership and use, including background checks, proof of proper and safe usage of guns, registration of all weapons, and periodic gun license renewals. Not to do so is hypocritical.
We can hope that the religious and family values adherents, anti-smoking protesters, and responsible gun owners will reject the season’s political brainwashing and their unintended hypocrisy before voting on the candidates and issues in November’s elections.
Robert Hilliard is a World War II veteran, former federal government official and college dean who lives on Sanibel.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Political season breeds hypocrisy
