Height of Hypocrisy
AJ Robinson

Just recently, I saw an article about former First Lady, Michelle Obama, giving a speech. I didn’t read the text of the article, which isn’t normal for me. I like to know what’s going on in our political climate and the views of Michelle are usually, I thought, fair and reasonable.

I noticed, however, an item down at the bottom of the web page. It was comments people had written regarding the Michelle Obama story. It was a long, long list. I was curious. I clicked on it.

Man, was I surprised.

I had thought, now that Obama is out of office that the pundits and protestors who reviled him and his family would lighten up, but no such luck. I saw terms such as “Marxist” and “gorilla.” Those were the mild one.

The comments put me in mind of the things said about her back, when she was in the White House and even insults hurled at her during the first election. She had said that she was proud of America for the first time in her life, following her the election of her husband and the right wing pundits went bat-crap crazy. They had a similar reaction when she dared to go out with her, as the saying goes, “guns out.” You’d have thought she’d paraded across the White House lawn buck-naked.

Yet, I noted the comment writers remained strangely silent at actual nude pictures of Melania Trump that I can find by doing a simple Google search on line. Now, please don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with anyone appearing nude in the proper context. To criticize Michele for her bare arms and say nothing over the bare everything, which Melania showed, does smack of hypocrisy.

Then there’s the comment regarding pride in our nation that Michelle Obama made.

Once again, the comment writers went nuts. When asked, by a right-wing reporter, how he felt about Putin essentially ordering the killing of several people, including journalists and political opponents, President Trump voiced no criticism of the Russian leader. Trump said that we, meaning America, weren’t entirely innocent in that department. He said we had killers in our country; we’d killed people.

Technically speaking, Trump was right. As a nation, our history is far from perfect. Still, when it comes to the right wing, conservatives are united by one thing: we’re the good fellows and anyone that dares say otherwise is called all manner of derogatory terms, unless it’s Trump that is speaking. As with Melania, the comment writers remained strangely silent on what her husband said.

Finally, there’s the matter of Obama getting “uppity.” Yes, they used that term, which is quite the “dog whistle” phrase and carries a highly negative racial connotation. During the six years that republicans controlled Congress, he kept calling on them to do their job, to pass legislation and to do simply anything!

Yet, Congress did nothing, not even the legislation on which he and they agreed. The moment he came out in favour of something they wanted, they changed their tune. He passed DACA because they wouldn’t address the immigration issue. He did executive orders regarding overtime pay, fair pay for women, and giving government workers a raise because Congress refused to do anything on any of these issues. He begged and pleaded with them to pass an infrastructure bill. They still refused, and hurled all manner of insults at him when he “whined” and “complained.”

With Trump, not only is he the one hurling all kinds of vile insults at politicians on both sides of the aisle, but he also sends out tweet insults against reporters, actors, sports figures and even ordinary citizens that he feels have upset him. Lately, it’s the NFL while he’s remained silent on the post-hurricane situation in Puerto Rico. Can you imagine how conservatives would have reacted if Obama had said even one-tenth of one percent of the things Trump has tweeted?

It would not have been pretty.

Once more, the conservative movement in this country has shown its true colors. I just never expected them to be the yellow of cowardice and the white of surrender.