Trump’s hypocrisy threatens democracy

Fresno CA

Description

Over the past week, Donald Trump has shown Americans that, even out of office, he remains this nation’s Hypocrite-in-Chief. His performance is a reminder that the term hypocrisy can be traced back to Greek drama, where it was used to refer to the feigning and dissembling of the stage actor. Trump’s most recent feigning and dissembling was apparent in the revelations about the classified documents that he apparently purloined from the White House and kept at Mar-a-Lago, which has received a great deal of press coverage. It was also on full view in his shameless invocation of the 5th Amendment nearly 450 times during a deposition in New York. What Trump practices and what he preaches have little in common. He feels no compunction about doing the very things that he denounces and uses to demonize his political opponents. His hypocrisy undermines democracy; it erodes trust and breeds cynicism. That is the point of Trump’s double standards, because he has ridden a wave of cynicism for all of his years in public life.