Hypocrisy takes a toll in Biden v. Trump
Clearly, both the prime contenders to lead this country — President Joe Biden, right, and former President Donald Trump, seen during the CNN presidential debate on June 27 — are past their primes Credit: The Washington Post/Jabin Botsford
There might be no form of human endeavor more rife with hypocrisy than politics.
There certainly are few better examples of that than the current presidential campaign.
For years, Democrats have complained that Republicans have publicly supported Donald Trump, refusing to condemn his dangerous proclivities and obvious affronts to standards of taste and truth-telling for fear of angering his large and loyal base, while saying privately that they deplore both the man and his methods.
Now, Republicans are complaining that Democrats have been hiding Joe Biden's aging and feebleness, explaining away troubling signs of his slippage in order to justify his continuance as president and his viability as a candidate for a second term, while privately worrying that time has taken too deep a toll.
Democrats are saying, wait, Trump is the one with cognitive issues, citing his myriad verbal gaffes, word-salad speeches, and incomprehensible and illogical wanderings and non-sequiturs.
Republicans are saying, wait, it was Democrats who were engaging in a cover-up, doing the country a grievous wrong by concealing Biden's obvious deficiencies.
On the level of gaslit projection, they deserve each other. And hypocrisy on its own indeed is not good.
But it's particularly harmful in what it does to the populace. Hypocrisy in politics enervates the enthusiasm of citizens.
The damage might not be obvious but the corrosive frustration it creates is real. You know what's happening is wrong, you know that your own party is party to it, but you lash out at the other side and readjust your blinders because it seems like the only option available. And the poisoned well that is our politics gets a little deeper.
At times like these, it also would be wise to remember the observation made by the brilliant comedian Robin Williams, who once remarked, “I'm outraged by cruel absurdities, the hypocrisy that exists everywhere, even within yourself, where it's hardest to see.”
We need to examine ourselves, in other words, for our own potential hypocrisy on the matter that lies at the heart of this moment — aging.
Aging is difficult, for both the person aging and the people who love them. The process rarely proceeds on a glide path bathed in black and white. It's all shades of gray. Things change and slip away imperceptibly and unevenly, and knowing what to do, how to support, and when to intervene is not easy for even the most well-meaning among us.
Chances are most of us have seen someone else who is too old to drive, for example, and we have wondered — perhaps aloud — why their loved ones did not take away the keys. But did we then have trouble when it came time to take away the keys from our own aging loved ones? And if we did pursue the matter and convinced dad to fork over his key chain, are we certain that we will be willing to do the same when our time has come? Will we trust the judgment of others over our own? Will we recognize the slippage that others plainly see?
I can say now at this moment that as an overall proposition I have no intention of going gentle into that good night. But I also know that perhaps there will come a time when grace would be the wiser choice than rage.
These clearly are smaller-bore hypocrisies than the ones afflicting our politics. Our personal stakes are not as high as what faces the nation. But the parallels hold.
Clearly, both of the prime contenders to lead this country — and, hence, the free world — are past their primes, apart from their other obvious qualifications and demerits. Clearly, being forced to make a choice between them is not ideal.
But just as clearly, it would help in so many ways if everyone involved was honest about this choice, and not just behind closed doors.
Columnist Michael Dobie's opinions are his own.
Michael Dobie is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
