Former President Barack Obama finally said what he should have said eight years ago.
Speaking at Hamilton College in New York last Thursday, Obama called out the hypocrisy of President Donald Trump and his MAGA faithful.
“Imagine if I had done any of this,” Obama said in reference to Trump’s vast executive overreach and attempts to bully universities and the press and private law firms. “It’s unimaginable that the same parties that are silent now would have tolerated behavior like that from me or a whole bunch of my predecessors.”
Mark Wingfield
Later, he said, “Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.”
That was a reference to Trump denying credentials to the Associated Press for refusing to follow his edict that the Gulf of Mexico is now to be called the Gulf of America. The AP is suing to regain access.
Then, the two-term Democratic president said something I wish he had heeded himself much earlier: “Now we’re at one of those moments where, you know what? It’s not enough just to say you’re for something; you may actually have to do something.”
“Imagine if I had pulled Fox News’ credentials from the White House press corps.”
What did Obama do from 2017 through 2020 to stop Trump’s first round of attacks on democracy? Nothing. He kept his mouth shut, citing the protocol expected of former presidents not to criticize their successors.
Except that was not a time for following protocol. Trump was setting fire to democracy and decency and Obama — the most popular and influential Democrat in the nation — did nothing. At least nothing public.
After four years of the Biden administration, when Trump was knocking on the door again, Obama finally showed up on the campaign trail and at the Democratic National Convention and began speaking plain truth again.
President Obama, we needed you long before that. Your words could have made a difference.
At least this time, he’s absolutely right in his assessment. As I have written over and over, MAGA’s middle name should be Hypocrisy. If any Democratic president did even a fraction of what Trump has done and is doing, the right wing would have lost its mind and marched on Washington with tiki torches.
If a Democratic Senate majority leader did what Mitch McConnell did and stole two Supreme Court seats through blatant chicanery, Republicans would have exploded. But they said not a critical word when protocol was trashed to their favor.
If Democratic protesters marched on the Capitol and sought to overturn an election through violence, Republicans would have demanded “law and order” and warned about the evil of “thugs.” But when their people sought to harm even Republican leaders, they acted like nothing unusual happened and then applauded when their president pardoned those convicted of violent crimes.
If a Democratic president sought to purge all conservatives from public service jobs and decimate essential services to rural America, Republicans would have cried foul and taken the president to court. But as Trump and his unelected sidekick Elon Musk purge agencies and services in an effort to rout the “Deep State,” the same Republicans can’t be bothered to raise a care.
“The true test of fairness in politics and life is to ask this one question.”
If Democratic-nominated cabinet officials sought to remove all conservative ideology from federal agencies and the military, Republicans would rally and fundraise and take over talk radio to say how persecuted they are. But when Trump officials go on a rampage against DEI and instead promote white supremacy, they’re just fine with that.
This is rank hypocrisy. And most of it emanates from conservative evangelical Christians.
The true test of fairness in politics and life is to ask this one question: If my opponents were treating me the way I’m treating them, would I be angry, would I think it was fair?
To have one set of values for your side and a different set of values for the other side is nothing but hypocrisy.
No wonder so many evangelicals — even evangelical pastors — today ignore the clear teaching of Jesus: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Instead, they have flipped it to believe they must do unto others before they do unto you.
He’s eight years late, but Obama is right about this one.
Mark Wingfield serves as executive director and publisher of Baptist News Global. He is the author of Honestly: Telling the Truth About the Bible and Ourselves and Why Churches Need to Talk About Sexuality and Troubling the Truth and Other Tales from the News.
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