Is it really such big news that advocates of family values like Senator Larry Craig often commit many of the same sins and display many of the same vices as those who don't share their political and moral beliefs? No Christian is surprised that other Christians don't live up to all the commandments. No conservative is baffled when other conservatives fall short of the values they espouse.
Let's look on the liberal side. Liberals may advocate higher taxes, but are liberals exempt from cheating on their taxes? Liberals self-righteously promote high environmental standards, but do none of them drive gas-guzzling cars? Liberals also champion the cause of the underprivileged, but how many of them actually endure the deprivations of poverty and unemployment? I've heard lots of liberals champion the cause affirmative action but I've yet to meet a liberal who gave up his faculty position or job in order to make room for a black or Hispanic replacement. Bill Clinton was a champion of women's rights, but look how he abused his power and authority with Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky.
Still, the fact that Clinton misbehaved with women didn't discredit his advocacy of equal rights or equal dignity for women. Similarly Larry Craig's nocturnal or even daytime sexual habits in no way undercuts his socially conservative values.
"Hypocrisy" is indeed a vice, but as La Rouchefoucauld famously noted, it is also the tribute that vice pays to virtue. Today the charge of hypocrisy is rarely launched by people who are calling the hypocrites to live by higher standards. Rather, hypocrisy is the weapon used by people whose goal is to get rid of the standards in the first place. The next time you see gleeful exposers of hypocrisy, ask yourself which is better: people who want to abolish the norms of public decency, or people who uphold those norms but sometimes fall short of them?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 8)
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bbqdsetgaf at 10:41AM on Jan 24th 2009
2. Thank you! So true. Okay, the man wasn't perfect, but who is?
amren2006 at 7:40PM on Aug 28th 2007
3. I see a little of Betrand Russell, Immanuel Kant and ArT Buchwald in you. People are imperfect. Give this Senator a chance to explain and defend himself. You don't have to mention Bill Clinton. You know why? He is imperfect too! "True forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower sheds to the foot that crushed it!" I do not remember who said it. Great piece Mr.D'Souza!
Rishi Kumar Sushley at 7:51PM on Aug 28th 2007
4. Mr. D'Souza, I disagree with your comment that "...the charge of hypocrisy is rarely launched by people who are calling the hypocrites to live by higher standards." Don't you think that the majority of American citizens demand a higher standard from our leaders? Most Americans really want to see bad people removed from office, not because these people disagree with our politics, but because thay are not good for America.
You also state that charges of "...hypocrisy is the weapon used by people whose goal is to get rid of the standards in the first place." I hope that you are not confusing the genuine disgust that average Americans feel towards our leadership with the self-serving, vicious, amoral mudslinging of Washington politicians. Most regular folks really want a better world full of peace and justice. We want our leaders, whatever their political stance, to follow a code of ethics and morals. We call a hypocrite a hypocrite because we want them to stop their behavior, not because we really admire their lack of morals. This is the code of jackals and hyenas, of evil beings, not decent people.
Valkyrie at 8:08PM on Aug 28th 2007
5. The man wasn't perfect? He solicited a guy in the next stall at the airport bathroom, it turned out to be a cop. He tried to bluff his way out by showing his senate business card, he pleads guilty, knowing it will wreck his career, then denies all.
He's also an anti gay spokesman of the right.
Let's revisit the first point-'He solicited a guy in the next stall at the airport bathroom'.Eeewh!
Dinesh, you were doing so well with Mother Theresa and Gonzo but I am tempted to forceably remove your vowel, rendering you D'nesh once again!The guy is an old queen, that's fine. He just needs to BE the old queen and end his pathetic posturing.
tom at 8:15PM on Aug 28th 2007
6. There's a good point in there somewhere, but I think your examples fall a little short. I think the problem is with the LEVEL of hypocrisy in the examples you cite, and the immediate impact and damage they inflict on people; yes, giving lip service to wanting a cleaner environment while continuing to drive a status-symbol Hummer is certainly hypocritical, but it's a little different than actively campaigning to demonize and curtail the freedoms of a segment of society because of the gender they're attracted to while being a PART of that segment of society. I think a better analogy would be someone who is a Jew For Hitler or a white supremacist who has African Americans in their family tree. Find a liberal who matches those descriptions and you've got yourself a story.
Joseph at 8:40PM on Aug 28th 2007
7. The guy is a moron, a hypocrite, a self-loather, naive, worthless, egotistical, vain, and a slimeball.
And the same goes for Dinesh.
Webster Hubble Telescope at 8:45PM on Aug 28th 2007
8. Reading these overly detailed accounts of the 'incident' feels like a strange kind of voyeuristic pornography. Did we really need to hear all about the intimacies of the gay sex in public bathrooms?
I think the people outraged by this man's hypocrisy are the real perverts! What a bunch of sickos. For shame!
Damn Wren at 8:48PM on Aug 28th 2007
9. Maybe Senator Craig can go into rehab with Mark Foley and Ted Haggard. Then, all of you hypocritical Republicans will have three places you can visit. Talk about a bunch of hypocrites and idiots.
Republicans are Fools at 9:18PM on Aug 28th 2007
10. Craig was a leading attacker of Bill Clinton in that scandal. Now here he is on front stage hoping for acceptance. Oh boy. His party would probably put lots of pressure on him to drop out of the race, since the Republicans may lose even more as a result of Bush/Cheney. Sad, but it is a part of the political game.
Tom Edgar at 9:37PM on Aug 28th 2007
11. So, according to the "Conservative D'Souza Bible", everyone is a hypocrite, and should thereby be condoned, especially when the occasion is found to be an example of hypocrisy among one of their number. Are we to surmise that Mr. D'Souza is also a hypocrite? That is what he appears to be saying to us. If he is, why is anyone bothering to read what he has to say or what he writes. Me thinks, that the gentleman is hanging himself on a gallows he himself has constructed.
Robert I. Laitres at 9:40PM on Aug 28th 2007
12. I predicted early today that Dinesh's next blog post would remind us that despite what we think of the Craig scandal, Bill Clinton still banged his intern.
Apparently I was right.
Tony Messinger at 9:45PM on Aug 28th 2007
13. I think Craig deserves compassion, of course, but I don't agree with your various comparisons at all. It's one thing to be a hypocrite, and to behave in a way, as Clinton did, that most of us don't like. It's another to get arrested for a crime. Those are not equivalent.
(And, you know, I did not like what Clinton did, but on the other hand Monica is a hottie. What we're talking about with Craig and Foley etc is just pure sickness, off the charts, in addition to possible criminal behavior.)
There's a special irony that the GOP has to carry as its burden in these rather bleak days. Most reasonable people, I think, believe there is a price to pay for repression, and Craig is paying it. It amounts to deep personal humiliation, the end of a career, the besmirching of a noble party, and so on and on. Is this necessary? It's a pattern with the "values" party. It's worth pondering, just as it is worth pondering why it is that the administration America felt safe with, in terms of security and terrorism issues, has bungled the job so dramatically, arguably unlike any administration in history--and has had to pay for that fact with a virtually complete house-cleaning.
One can entertain these questions legitimately without "glee." Believe me, I feel none. Craig's crime is, at least, victimless--he's his own victim.
best,
mw
michael white at 9:55PM on Aug 28th 2007
14. We now have the obviously gay Dinesh D'Souza's justification for his private homosexuality vs. his public homophobia. What a fascinating look into the mind of a profound hypocrite.
Richter at 9:56PM on Aug 28th 2007
15.
SORRY D'SOUZA BUT YOUR TORTURED RATIONALE FOR WHAT CRAIG DID JUST DOESNT CUT IT. HIS PASSIONATE ADVOCACY OF FAMILY VALUES CONTRIBUTED TO THE
CLIMATE OF HATE TOWARDS GROUPS OF PEOPLE HE TARGETED.
"CONSERVATIVES" LIKE YOURSELF (JUST WHAT ARE YOU CONSERVING???) ALWAYS RETREAT TO MIXING IN THE CLINTONS WHEN ONE OF YOUR OWN IS UNDER FIRE. START PRACTICING WHAT YOU PREACH AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BEHAVIOR OF THESE REPUBLICANS.
I DO WONDER HOW CRAIG WOUND UP IN ROMNEY'S CAMPAIGN WHEN RUMORS HAVE BEEN OUT THERE FOR YEARS ABOUT HIM. DID ROMNEY CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE ON CRAIG IN OCTOBER 2006 WHICH SUGGESTED THEN THAT CRAIG WAS
POSSIBLY GAY???
D'SOUZA IF YOU REALLY WANT TO DO THE REPUBS A FAVOR
STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND PLAYING THE BLAME GAME.
YOU NEED TO TELL THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT TO BACK OFF.
WITH THEIR SO CALLED 'VALUES' CAMPAIGN. THEY HAVE DONE IMMEASURABLE HARM TO THE PARTY, BY FORCING PEOPLE LIKE CRAIG AND FOLEY AND OTHERS INTO DENIAL OF THEIR SEXUALITY, AND ENGAGING IN RISKY BEHAVIOR UNDER THE CLOAK OF SECRECY.
THE WIDOW OF FORMER SENATOR PAUL LAXALT OF NEVADA SAID AS MUCH ON TV TONIGHT.
Pat at 10:09PM on Aug 28th 2007