Feehery: The nihilist hypocrisy of the Democratic Party

Hypocrisy is the coin of the realm in Washington, as both political parties routinely change sides depending on if they are majority party in the Congress. 

But Democrats are super-sizing their hypocrisy to levels never seen. It is their embrace of nihilism that is pushing them to these extremes.

Nihilists reject objective truth, morality, values or any sense of meaning.

And so it is with our Democratic friends.

California has among the strictest COVID-19 regulations, and Los Angeles is leading the pack when it comes to ridiculous requirements to wear masks indoor. Moral leaders would follow the rules that they impose on everybody else.

But there was California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Gil Garcetti, and San Francisco Mayor London Breed all posing for maskless pictures with immunocompromised Magic Johnson at the Rams-49ers Divisional Championship, in an expensive box where the COVID-19 rules apparently don’t apply. 

They must have known that those pictures were going to make it out on social media, but they don’t care. This is next level hypocrisy.

Similarly, it was revealed over the weekend by the right-wing New York Times that dark money has been very, very good for the Democrats. 

For years, Republicans have been accused by Democrats such as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of being the evil recipients of unregulated campaign funds from rich billionaires. But according to a Times analysis, it is the Democrats who have most profited from the bounty of the uber-wealthy. The analysis showed “that 15 of the most politically active nonprofit organizations that generally align with the Democratic Party spent more than $1.5 billion in 2020 — compared to roughly $900 million spent by a comparable sample of 15 of the most politically active groups aligned with the G.O.P.”

Among the biggest funders for the left is the infamous George Soros, who most spectacularly has bankrolled the campaigns of progressive district attorneys across the country who refuse to prosecute known criminals. You wonder why we have so much blood on the streets these days? Look no further than Democratic dark-money. 

Objective truth has no meaning for the beneficiaries of this campaign largess. Riots are mostly peaceful protests, looting is reparations, carjacking is just kids going out for a joyride. 

The decennial effort to redraw congressional maps provides another great example. 

When the Republicans have the pen to decide which representatives have to run where, cries of gerrymandering fill the air. It is a broken process that is subverting the will of the people. It is the reason we have radicals running for office. 

But when the Democrats are the ones in charge, there is no complaining about the weird shape of the districts, like in Maryland, Illinois or New York. There is no worry about the right-wing extremism. Nope. It’s all common-sense redistricting to keep Congress out of the hands of the Republicans.

The inconsistency coming from the left strips any sense of meaning from their attacks on the GOP. How can you accuse the Republicans of doing evil when you are doing the exact same thing as they are? 

Joe Biden wants to get credit for naming the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court. But when George Bush nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals Janice Rogers Brown, a Black woman who many thought could be the actual first to make it to the Supreme Court in 2005, guess who led the charge to stop her nomination? Yep, Joe Biden.

How did he stop her? Well, he filibustered against her nomination. 

And that’s another great example of Democratic nihilistic hypocrisy.

One week, they launch a campaign to rid the Senate of the filibuster. The next week, they launch a filibuster to stop a Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) effort to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. 

When the Republicans filibuster to stop the Democrats from making it easier for them to win elections, it is evil. When Democrats filibuster to stop the Republicans from putting sanctions on an illegitimate Russian pipeline, it is bad. You got it? 

Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-Ill.) liked to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson. But this is not just typical Washington nonsense. This is next-level nihilistic hypocrisy. And it is killing our democracy.   

Feehery is a partner at EFB Advocacy and blogs at www.thefeeherytheory.com. He served as spokesman to former House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), as communications director to former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and as a speechwriter to former House Minority Leader Bob Michel (R-Ill.).