Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:09 pm
*The following is an opinion column by R Muse*
If anyone in America personifies hypocrisy, it is difficult to find another group as guilty as Republicans on nearly any topic imaginable. This idea that there is one standard Republicans hold Democrats to while blatantly and publicly violating that standard, and it doesn’t matter what it is, has become nearly as universal as their racism, religious-borne bigotry and misogyny. On Thursday, it was that inherent misogynistic bent that drove the highest-ranking Republican in the land to hypocritically criticize Hillary Clinton while ignoring his party’s standard bearer’s truly obscene statements over the past months.
During a radio interview with conservative Hugh Hewitt yesterday, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan forgot that the day before he complained that he is not an election pundit while refusing to comment on statements made by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. However much Ryan claimed it wasn’t his job, or that he was too busy doing nothing in his “job†to comment on the back-and-forth between Hillary Clinton and Trump, he surely found the time out of his busy schedule and made it his job to condemn former-Secretary Clinton for a true remark about Trump and demanded she issue an apology for telling the truth. Or was it because she is a woman?
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Ryan was queried if he believed Hillary Clinton should apologize to Mr. Trump for “suggesting that terrorists (ISIL) are rooting for his campaign.†The two-faced Ryan replied:
“Sure, I do. But she won’t. I mean look, they’re going to call each other these kinds of names. It’s just, I don’t know, I don’t see why she thinks this is good for her, but I think it just shows, you know, you can just sort of see a person at the end of the day, what they’re like.â€
So, let’s clarify that what Ryan is really saying is that Hillary Clinton is supposed to apologize for speaking the truth, and that because she spoke honestly it portrays her as someone untoward. What Ryan didn’t explain was if Clinton should apologize because she made an honest statement, or because she is a woman; it is more than likely both. Now, what the hypocrisy police want to know is: Why in dog’s name didn’t Ryan demand that his champion Trump apologize to Hillary Clinton for suggesting that those fanatical “Second Amendment folks†would be the only possible remedy to a Clinton presidency or a Supreme Court nominee that isn’t a raging religious maniac?
The remark Ryan said warrants an apology was Hillary Clinton’s comments during an interview broadcast on Israeli television where she cited a Time magazine article where the former National Counterterrorism Center chief, Matt Olson, argued that members and leaders of the Islamic State (Daesh, IS, ISIS, ISIL) “are actively advocating for Trump.†Candidate Clinton said:
“I found it even surprising how clear and compelling the case was where he [Olson] quoted ISIS spokespeople rooting for Donald Trump’s victory because Trump has made Islam and Muslims a part of his campaign and basically, Matt Olson argues [that] the jihadists see this as a great gift.
They are saying, ‘Oh please, Allah, make Trump president of America.’ So I’m not interested in giving aid and comfort to their evil ambitions. I want to defeat them. I want to end their reign of terror. I don’t want them to feel as though they can be getting more recruits because of our politics.â€
First, Hillary Clinton was referring to a real counterterrorism expert’s opinion cited in a real mainstream magazine article and wasn’t just spouting lies off the top of her head Ike Ryan’s hero Donald Trump. And second, it is a counterterrorism expert’s opinion founded on an absolute fact. And, incidentally, that counterterrorism expert’s opinion duly parroted the stated purpose of an ISIS leaders’ treatise he wrote down for posterity over a year-and-a-half ago (February 2015). In fact, this non-counterterrorism expert’s column reported last November, and again December that both Donald Trump and the Republican Party were following ISIS leaderships’ carefully detailed and scripted instructions to the letter and aiding ISIS’ recruitment efforts precisely as the jihadists knew “the fascists were prone†to do.
Of course ISIS members are “rooting for a Trump victory.†He has already done a yeoman’s job thus far by making life miserable, and dangerous, for American Muslims according to the dictates of the Islamic State to enhance their “Western†recruitment efforts from afar without lifting a finger or uttering one word; Donald Trump has done all the heavy lifting for them as they knew “the fascists in the West†would do. It is why Matt Olson, a real counterterrorism expert, could say with the utmost confidence that yes, ISIS is rooting for Trump and saying, “Oh please, Allah, make Trump president of America.â€
It’s no surprise to any American that Republican Paul Ryan is a hypocrite and a misogynist; all Republicans are hypocrites and misogynists. It is somewhat curious, however, that in the course of under 24 hours he did such an obvious about face in first, refusing to comment as “an election pundit†when it involved comments his love interest Donald Trump made, and then becoming an “election pundit†to demand an apology from his love interests’ rival over a remark quoting a counterterrorism expert.
Throughout this entire ugly, drawn-out and uniquely bizarre election cycle there has been an increase in Republican and the mainstream media’s misogyny likely because Hillary Clinton is in the race. It has also been an election with myriad examples of hypocrisy always emanating from the Republican side and always targeting Hillary Clinton. Still, it was somewhat surprising that after refusing to comment on a Donald Trump remark because it was “election punditry,†two-faced Paul Ryan just couldn’t let 24 hours pass without becoming an election pundit as if no-one would notice he reversed course to fulfill his typically Republican role of hypocrite and arrogant misogynist.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
