It's not that Republicans aren't hypocrites -- it's more that the label just isn't an effective dig. First, hypocrite is a fancy foreign Greek word like amnesty, ethics or Europe -- how is that going to appeal to Republicans? Second, espousing virtues you don't personally have to live up is basically the point of being a Republican.
Talker Rush Limbaugh, speaker for Republicans everywhere, famously railed against drug users and called for harsher sentencing for possession when it was fashionable in the '90s. Then in 2006 Limbaugh was arrested and went to rehab after losing his hearing as a direct result of his long-term drug addiction. Needless to say, he's cool with hypocrisy. He even thinks hypocrisy a good thing. During South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's "Appalachian Trail" love affair last year, Limbaugh defended the Republican politician, telling his audience, "Hypocrisy shows that there are moral values in a culture. Without moral values in a culture it would not be possible for anyone to be a hypocrite."
Yes, according to self-proclaimed personal responsibility advocate Limbaugh, personal choice doesn't make you a hypocrite -- society does.
Calling a conservative "hypocrite" is like calling a progressive "liberal": It stings, but they don't actually understand why it's supposed to be offensive. The GOP doesn't see self-contradiction as a moral shortcoming. They see people who don't agree with them as a moral shortcoming.
Take closeted homosexual GOP lawmakers who stand with their party and vote against gay rights. I'd list them all by name but I have a word count limit and it's widespread (er, stance) enough to be a cliché. Does it really hurt them to be called hypocrites? No.
Take the canard that Republicans are somehow FOR the government getting out of our lives. That's unless we look like we could be Mexican, or we're a woman of childbearing capability. Then it's the government's job -- responsibility -- to get up in our business. Is it effective to call them hypocrites? No.
Take Fraction Governor Sarah Palin who spends her free time telling President Obama how to do his job after she quit hers during the greatest economic downturn her state has ever faced. Not to mention her daughter, the unwed teenage mother Bristol Palin, who is now a paid advocate for abstinence. Do they care if they're called hypocrites? No.
Fox News rails against the "mainstream media" while bragging about their high ratings and now a front row seat in the White House press briefing room. Republican leadership castigates Democrats for high unemployment rates while stalling the jobs bill. Not to mention Republicans floating the myth that the biggest donor to the Obama campaign was BP when the bumper sticker/rallying cry of the 2008 RNC was "Drill, Baby, Drill." Does calling them hypocrites somehow stop this? No. Does it make them consider these positions to be flawed? This is about national security! Do you hate America?
No, using the word "hypocrite" should really be stopped altogether. It's become a meaningless insult like "Nazi," "bias," or "environmentalist." It actually has some spray back onto its user anyway. Basically pointing out someone is a hypocrite makes you sound like an angsty emo tween. It's a word we learn in junior high to apply to grownups.
Instead of "hypocrite" I recommend the word "fraud." It sounds bad. Fraud is illegal. Fraud is immoral. And it's an accurate way of describing hypocrisy without sounding like an irate Justin Bieber fan.
Plus, we're faced with a GOP who have appointed themselves as deficit hawks, but who are now for renewing the Bush Tax Cuts. These tax cuts added to (wait for it) the deficit - that's why they're going to expire. The only way the original bill could pass through reconciliation was for the Congressional Budget Office to have it expire in ten years. Will renewing these tax cuts add to the deficit? Just a couple of trillion dollars. Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was asked on Meet the Press this week if he agrees with Republican leaders who say that tax cuts pay for themselves. His answer? A curt, "No, I do not."
What does that mean? It means Republicans are FRAUDS when it comes to being deficit hawks. See how easy that was?
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as for their base, awareness of hypocrisy would be too tall an order.
Almost all blacks vote democratic. So first you need to dismantle any effort to register blacks to vote. Thus the Fake News video campaign against Acorn.
Most hispanics vote democratic. So you need to marginalize this group by casting all immigrants as suspicious law breakers, and rather than giving immigrants likely to vote democratic a path to citizenship, make a massive effort to deport them by the millions.
Most gays vote democratic. So do everything possible to marginalize this group, scapegoat them, and limit their rights within the society
Most young people vote democratic. So you need to make the political process as ugly and unattractive as possible to keep their disenchantment levels high, and keep them unmotivated and disengaged.
Hate and anger are easy short term motivators. So energize your base of older white people by conjuring up as many images and stories of anger and rage against blacks and hispanics and gays, and appeal to their deepest prejudices and fears. And the best political cover for this strategy is to in fact blame them for the very thing you are guilty of using as a tactic...
Its no accident 99% of the people who watch Fake News are not black.... And that the average viewer is 71...
They cry about Clinton today but tell everyone to STOP MENTIONING Bush.
They cry about government intervention yet tell everyone that the FEDS SHOULD DO MORE during spills
They cry about the size of government yet Bush increased it by 100% with no argument from the right
They cry about the two wars THAT THEIR MAN CREATED
Call them out on these things and more and what do we get? They either call you a name, change the subject, or just laugh as if that is their "cool" way of dismissing you
That is how they act in today's political world