on gotchas

TL; DR: the fact that you can find hypocrisy in the things politicians say and do, is nothing new.  in the past, there has been value in effecting change by pointing it out.  however, we have gotten to the point where it no longer matters.  politicians are no longer guided by what they did or said before, and it binds them in no way to what they say or do in the future.  there are no more gotchas.

 

watching and reading the news lately?
discussing and debating recent events with your friends an political foes?

in doing so, ever run across something that someone "on the other team" did or said that is hypocritical to something they did or said before? 

oh boy. that's when you got 'em! nothing wins a debate more solid than catching a politician, especially on video, putting political expediency in front of consistency. right?  i mean... um... right?

guess what? it no longer matters. hypocrisy is no longer a thing.

neither are "gotchas".  there's no more such thing as a "gotcha".

elected officials are going to do what they want, when they want, and their previous positions and behaviors mean nothing.  nor does what they say or do today, have any bearing on what they'll do tomorrow.

in 2016 obama did his constitutional duty and nominated merrick garland to fill the scotus seat vacated by antonin scalia. mcconnell and the senate gop sold a story that with 9 months left in obama's term, and the 2016 campaign underway, seating a new judge should wait until after election day, giving americans a direct choice in who should fill the seat.  as such, mcconnell ignored the advise and consent role of the senate, and wouldn't allow a vote.  wouldn't even consider it, wouldn't even discuss it.

now we have a vacancy within two months of the election, and mcconnell is suddenly all about "defending the constitution as written".

how does the GOP defend this apparent hypocrisy? they don't care. 2016 is history, and as long as they have the discretion, and they do, they'll do whatever they want thanks.

used to be if you could find a politician or party flip-flopping out of convenience, you could call them out on it and embarass them, sometimes into reversing back into consistency.  not anymore.  hypocrisy is so rampant throughout politics, it's normal, and no one cares.

you think you found a "gotcha" that you can yell about, laugh about, point at?  you didn't.  there are no more gotchas.  

maybe just out of habit, mcconnell, graham, and the rest of the trump bootlickers (who just 4 years ago were fighting against trump tooth and nail), cooked up some story about how there's:

1. one rule if the part of the president matches the party power balance of the senate, and 

2. a different rule if the party of the president is different than the party of the power balance of the senate.  

some even cooked up some stats about how it's been this way, past practice and precedent since the 1800s or something, and others who say that's not true.  others who say the democrats pull the same shit in the past.  blah, blah, blah...

none of it escapes the fact that the GOP...  the self-proclaimed party of "the constitution as written", are today, in 2020, abiding by the constitution as written.  that even if the president has one day left in his term, he still has the duties and responsibilities of president.  and by the letter of the law, they're right.  even i believe that's right.  even the late justice ginsberg said that was right.  the constitution isn't specific about a lot, but it is specific about that.

but... thus admitting that in 2016, the constitution as written didn't fit what they wanted to do, they ignored the constitution as written.

mcconnell says that in 2016, obama's duty was to nominate a judge, and he did.

and in 2020 it's trump's job to nominate a judge and he did.

both presidents did their job.  the problem isn't at the white house.  the problem is the senate.

mcconnell says that it was in the discretion of the senate, in it's advise and consent role, to decide not to vote on, consider, or even discuss the nominee, because the people had already spoken when they gave the senate majority to the GOP, thus the people implied that they don't want the democrat president the ability to appoint a judge to the scotus.  

nope. that's not how the constitution works.  the congress and the president are in two different branches, elected in two different ways.  you're not allowed to logically connect them that way.  in fact, they're designed to be separate.  the people are allowed to vote for a republican senator and at the same time vote for a democrat president. they're two different elections.  could be two different reasons.  that's allowed.  and one creates no inferential decision on the other.

if mcconnell had allowed a vote on garland, and it failed, then fine.  but that isn't what happened.

we're in a post-trump, post-truth, post-facts era.  all that matters is today, and what you want to do now. 

so how do we elect officials to represent us if there's no trust for us to understand how they plan on representing us?  well, good news is, you can still tell how your local elected official is going to perform.  you no longer know this by what they tell you.  you only know by what political party they belong to.  because that's what congress is now.  it's no longer hundreds of representatives putting their constituents first.  it's party above everything.  it's party above country, party above constitution, party above the anthem, above americans, even above their own office.  it's party above all.  

there is no more United States of America.  

what we have are the the Two Oppositional Political Parties of America. 

you down with OPP?  yes you are. 

and the nation continues to devolve.